Starts With A Raindrop
by Indigo Apple Snap
Summary: A young girl, a Mimicker of the Zodiac turns up at Shigure's house one morning and turns the Sohma's world more upside-down than it was. Soon, it's pretty easy to work out that the Mimicker has her own demons and curses... HatorixOC, HaruxOC
1. A wisp in a storm

_It started with rain, and began with rain._

_Rain. Precipitation. __**Pleut. **__Everyone knows it. _

_It's always thought of as something that unfolds a dramatic event, something saddening, something grief-filled. But it's not that, not really. All it is, is the clouds above, swollen and blooming exploding and millions of their tiny water-children will drop hundreds of thousands of feet onto the earth below. It's a simple geographical fact, an event that isn't to do with any higher being or fate itself. It's the earth's way of drinking, its own dripping faucet for its dehydrated land. And it was then, on that night that my journey began once again. They say one's life only truly begins after a specific event. Some think it's when they find their love, or when they birth their child. But it's wrong what they think. For no one's life truly begins at one point; it merely gets more interesting. Which is what I found out..._

It was a late night in February, the season typical for that type of weather, and the rain was unrelenting in its determination to soak any passer-by on the streets of Tokyo. It filled the gaping holes of any imperfections in the street and gaping cracks in pavements ran the water like newly sprung rivers into the gutters. The people on the streets walked quickly, their coats plastered to them tightly partly to do with their desire to keep it from flying away and also from the sheer force of the rain.

And in the dark of an alleyway, a figure stepped out of the gloom as though melting into the scenery. It was distinctly female; the only sign of that being true was the swell of her breasts underneath the fabric of a cloak and the slight hint of an hourglass figure as it swept down to her ankles. It was a slender figure, one that looked as though it might snap if someone brushed past her too roughly. Some would think she was an extremely frail young woman, but the more observant ones would know that she was late in her teenage years, possibly eighteen. The only thing visible was a pair of vivid blue eyes glowing like the reignited ashes of a fire under a hood. It was a curious trait for eyes of such a colour to perform, but these were not seemingly usual eyes. They weren't the generic ocean-blue eyes many were used to seeing; these were far more diluted, more ice blue than anything else. One could relate them to the eyes of the Husky.

The rain didn't seem to bother her, as she carried no umbrella nor did her coat look altogether waterproof. In fact, the rain peppered the dark material and slowly began to darken its hue as she moved away from shelter underneath the shops beside the pavement and began to walk a little faster than the others around her. The strides were long and sweeping, something not distinctly feminine despite her gait being very flowing and liquid, and the people hurrying to the next point of shelter looked like scuttling bugs in her wake. She then turned sharply to the left and veered off from the main town and into the more rural areas of the land. Many passers-by shook their heads at her and looked disbelievingly. In this weather, taking that path wouldn't be the best move. The ground would turn more than sodden in this state- it would turn to a slippery mud bath. Anyone would think twice about going in that direction, let alone a female of her slightness.

But once her feet touched the path, she threw her hood back to reveal a small, elvin face and short, cropped hair stuck up in lashings of purple spikes. There were a few light marks criss-crossing along the right side of her cheek, and one even snaked up across her eye. These scars however didn't seem to hinder her in any way either- she almost seemed proud of them. She cast her eyes around the street where she'd previously tread and noticed a mother and child walking past the opening.

The child, a young girl, was clutching hold of her mother's hand and squinting through the torrential downpour she'd been dragged out into, and her large hazel eyes suddenly caught onto the girl's shape. The child froze amid irritated tugs from her mother. The teenager raised her head and looked the girl in the eye, raising a thin finger to her pale lips. And with that, she swept away at a pace so fast that once the child had blinked, she was gone. And all she could see was a much smaller four-legged figure racing up the path with urgency in its stride. Almost animal-like...

"What are you looking at?!" The mother snapped, giving her daughter's hand another tug.

"...I don't know." The child admitted, and as she was hauled away she tried her best to follow the animal's progress up the track.


	2. First impressions

It had been a normal weekend morning in the Sohma household for the few hours the inhabitants had been up; Kyo was sulking on the roof because of a falling out he and Yuki had had over something as petty as picking the wrong set of chopsticks, Shigure was sat in his study writing for his editor, which was a very rare occurrence, and Yuki and Tohru were sat having breakfast.  
Yes, perfectly normal.  
Until she arrived.

The peace of the morning was broken like thin glass by a curious scratching noise on the door of the house. Yuki looked up from the table and frowned. That was odd. He was used to the occasional dog or cat finding their way to the house thanks to the attraction Shigure and Kyo possessed for them, but this was definitely larger than that. The very fact that there was a suggestion of a polite entrance was unusual; most of their visitors would simply slide the door across and walk right on in.

"I wonder who that could be." He voiced aloud.

Out of politeness, Tohru rose from the table she was knelt at to see who was waiting outside. But before she could do so, Shigure appeared from his study in a flurry of paper, no doubt the bare pages of his upcoming novel.

"No need to get up Tohru, I have it!" He said in his bright, breezy voice that told both of them sat at the table instantly that he was trying to cover something up. Sometimes, Yuki thought to himself, he thought he just wanted any excuse to skive off his writing. Today was obviously no exception. When he pulled to door to, Yuki and Tohru could only see him stood gawping at whoever was stood outside.

"Hmm, I wonder who it could be." Tohru voiced absent-mindedly, wandering back to her place and kneeling once again.

Yuki shrugged. "I don't know. It sounded like an animal of some kind. We also weren't planning any visitors any time soon. Besides, it takes quite a genius to get him to shut up."  
Although Tohru didn't like saying such things, Yuki could tell that she secretly agreed with him. Shigure was usually very loud and in your face, and now he was stood gaping like a fish out of water at whoever was visiting. As both teenagers tilted themselves slightly in order to catch more than a glimpse of Yuki's cousin, they both noticed with raised eyebrows that his gaze was angled downwards. Then, the yelling started.

"TAMIKO!!!"

"SHIGURE!!!"

The sound was piercing; Tohru had to cover her ears for fear of them falling off in the loudness of their exclamations. All they saw was a huge tawny-coloured fur-ball launch itself at Shigure before there was a 'pop' and a cloud of smoke. And then, the dog Shigure was in sight, his tail wagging madly and his joyful bark echoing around the house. The other creature was practically jumping off the ground with excitement; neither Yuki nor Tohru could quite make out what it was yet, and then the recognisable wagging tail of a dog was seen. Aside from the tawny coat, there was also a vivid purple tuft of hair on the dog's head along with cruelly curved marks on the right side of her face and right eye. Two more scars were visible- one ran thinly across half of her chest and another across her stomach. For it was a girl, Tohru wasn't that simple as to think otherwise. Otherwise Shigure wouldn't have turned into a dog. Tohru sat there with gleaming eyes and excitement bubbling in her stomach, and Yuki, with a knowing smile, knew why. Another Sohma! It had to be, she'd never seen another person like this before.

She turned to Yuki and asked amid the happy barks and playful fights Shigure and the stranger were having, "So, who is she? Is she an aunt or a cousin? Oh is she a cousin, because she looks young, well she looks like a young dog, I..."

"I've never seen her before." He replied in a misty voice. Tohru stopped her jabbering and glanced back at the pair, who were now in the middle of jumping at each other from their hind legs. "I've never seen her before in my life. And our family is very close-knit as you know... she must be from another family." Yuki continued, a frown crossing his face.

"But, I didn't think anyone else had your curse." She asked, confusion clouding her own thoughts.

"They don't." He replied. His attention then turned to Shigure. "Can you stop it you moron and tell us who she is?"

Shigure stopped his play-fight immediately and stood up straighter. "Oh, I'm sorry, in my excitement I forgot to introduce you. Yuki, Tohru, this is Tamiko Kasai. She's an old friend, I'm sure Yuki remembers her."

"Oldest friend you have!" The other dog replied brightly, her pale pink tongue lolling out of her mouth as she panted.

"Ta...mi...ko?" Yuki sounded out, realisation crossing his face.

"That's my name squeaker, don't wear it out." As she spoke, she began to transform slowly into her human self, growing taller and elongating her limbs until she stood at about 5 foot 6, a young woman of about 18 with short cropped purple hair and the same scar she carried in her dog form. Tohru presumed that the other scars were burdening her body too, but in the more intimate places. She wasn't wearing the usual kind of clothes Tohru had seen the adults wear; skinny black jeans and a denim jacket could be seen underneath a long ink-black cloak that she now shrugged off and folded up, something not seen in this part of the world. The teenager looked down at Shigure, who was still his ink-black dog self and winked. "Don't worry Fido, I'll scratch your belly as much as you want."

"Oh, don't tease me." Shigure nuzzled her leg before another 'pop' and a cloud of smoke signalled that he was back as a human. Unfortunately though, he was totally naked. Tohru quickly averted her eyes, but this teenager called Tamiko merely raised an eyebrow at him and let a small smile cross her face.

"Looking good in your old age, 'Gure." She commented.

And for the first time since Tohru arrived there, Shigure blushed. "Oh, pssh, I bet you look much better...sugarplum." He crooned softly.

"Ah, but that is merely a silvery lie woven on the thinnest of threads, my single snowflake." Tamiko replied without pause, and with the same faked passion as Shigure.

"Shigure! Stop it!" Yuki complained, clapping a hand over his eyes. "Do you do this with all of your friends?!"

Shigure straightened up and grinned, turning to find his clothes. "Well, most of them. The ones who are willing to go along with it."

"And I am all too willing." Tamiko watched Shigure look around fruitlessly for his clothes and silently handed him her cloak before hastening a glance at Yuki. "Yuki, right? My God...you've grown so much since I last saw you."

He nodded a little nervously. "Yes...that's what tends to happen when people age."

Tohru noticed Shigure look a little nervously over to Tamiko- he hardly _ever_ looked nervous- but she seemed to brush the comment aside. "Squeaker!" She cried in obvious joy, rushing to the table and placing both her hands either side of it, causing the breakfast things to shake. "Aww, you're so tall! You were such a cute kid! You're sixteen now, right? I see Akito let you out of the compound, that's a good thing, I didn't like seeing you walled up in there, I was tempted to get you out of there myself if Shigure and the others hadn't told me not to." Yuki just stared at her with large eyes, not sure of what to make of this overly forward teenager. Tohru just blinked rapidly at her, as though checking that she wouldn't disappear.

"Tamiko, try not to scare the kiddiewinks!" Shigure sang behind her.

"So, um, Tamiko, right? You're not a Sohma?" Tohru plucked up the courage to ask.

She was on her in an instant. "Oh, but neither are you! Where are my manners? I'm a wanderer, I hop from one place to another, it gets a bit complicated because I'm still technically only 18. I became friends with Shigure in his high-school days, not to mention Ayame and Hatori. I figured out their secrets but because of my own ability Akito spared me the mind wipe." She smiled brightly, almost proudly as she paused to take a breath. Tohru tried to process the information that had just been hurled at her but it didn't seem to register. "I'm a mimicker, meaning I can shape-shift. My generic form is a lioness but whenever I hug a Sohma, I obtain their form and automatically change to that animal. So, because I hugged Shigure and Ayame and Hatori in high-school, I can now turn into a dog or a snake or a seahorse! And watch-" she grabbed hold of Yuki and hugged him close to her. He gave a squeak of alarm before he turned into a rat with a 'pop' and cloud of smoke. As this cleared, A tawny version of Yuki was stood next to him, glee clear in its amber eyes. "-Now I turn into a rat, too!"

"You know, you could have just asked before you hugged me." Yuki said irritably, flicking his tail.

"Ah but that's no fun. You would have tried to run away."

"With good reason."

"True, true." The Rat Tamiko scrambled around the breakfast table, and Tohru followed her through wide eyes.

She was such a strange person, so forward and friendly before knowing someone well. Perhaps it was just her personality- she certainly didn't look like someone who would be so nice. Tohru felt herself grow a little ashamed. Her mother had always taught her not to judge books by their covers, and she'd done just that! But Tamiko hadn't noticed, so no harm had been done. Despite this, Tohru had a tiny shell of doubt. But Shigure trusted her, so maybe she was just one of those people you're not used to being so...forward. But when Rat Tamiko picked up a piece of fruit in her paws and started to nibble at it, she couldn't help shuddering. It was an instinct ingrained into the heart of a housekeeper.

"What?" Tamiko asked a little grumpily. "I' m only being a rat!"

"It's rude to eat in that form, it is making Miss Honda uncomfortable." Yuki cut in before Tohru could try to form a polite answer.

"Oh! Oh I am sorry, I didn't realise! I'll turn back, okay?"

Tohru nodded soundlessly. Tamiko obliged pretty quickly; she was her normal self in a matter of seconds, and she raised her wrist up in perfect imitation of a wristwatch. "And, three, two, one..."  
As she counted down, there was a 'pop' and Yuki was back, the cloud conveniently masking his nakedness from Tohru's view. Of course, Tohru looked away despite this with a shriek of surprise and she was sure that Tamiko did too out of politeness. At least she understood that Yuki was a bit more self-conscious than Shigure was.

"Um, Tamiko, can I ask you a question?" She began, half to distract her attention from the hastily dressing Yuki.

"Shoot." She said, shrugging as she knelt down at the table.

"Why...why, when you transform, do you keep your clothes?" Tohru fought back a blush as she explained meekly, "Yuki, Kyo, Shigure... they're all naked when they change back. Why don't you, is it only a Sohma thing?"

Tamiko blinked at her before chuckling. "Oh, that. Well y'see, usually I do lose my clothes. But I've got better at controlling my condition so to speak, so if I concentrate hard my clothes change with me and stay on when I turn back. Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn't work, so it's really touch and go. That's the same with changing into the animal of the Sohma I hug, if I concentrate then I won't change and neither will the person I'm hugging. I can literally mimic the genes of a Sohma. Wicked, eh?" She flashed Tohru a bright smile, and she couldn't help smiling back. "Now, Shigure, Yuki...oh yes, Kyo! Where is the ol' sourpuss? Last time I saw him he was clinging to my leg as a tender little eight year old."

Both Tohru and Yuki blinked at her. The image of Kyo as an eight year old being shy and coy enough to cling to this girl's legs was a startling one, and something neither could imagine that easily. "Uh...he was on the roof earlier..." Tohru tried.

"Ah, the roof." Tamiko nodded. "I see. He always has liked roofs, must be the cat in him." She angled her head to the ceiling and looked thoughtful. "Let's go see what he's doing up there."

"I shouldn't do that if I were you, he's in a foul mood." Yuki said in a scathing tone, fully dressed now and sitting back down to the table.

Tamiko looked perplexed. "Isn't Kyo always in a foul mood?"

"Even so, he's in a worse mood than usual. He can sense the rain in the air." Shigure looked back to Tamiko. "Speaking of that, it was quite a storm yesterday. Tell me, when did you set out to find my house, Tamiko?"

She paused. "Well, it's been three days. I slept under the stars in the nights, travelled in the days."

"Ah, you got lost then." Shigure said brightly, dampening Tamiko's explanation a little. "And why exactly are you here?"  
Silence fell. Tohru hastened a glance at Tamiko, and almost flinched away from the expression on her face. Her ice blue eyes were on fire. They burnt at her pupils and her lips were drawn in a fine line.

"May I talk to you some other place? Away from Tohru and Yuki." She turned to face the two younger people. "No offense to you, but I'd rather divulge my intentions only to Shigure."

"It's okay, I understand." Yuki said pleasantly. "You have been gone a long time, I'm sure you have a reason for that."

Tamiko stared at him quietly for a few minutes, and Tohru detected a sense of regret and sadness in that stare. There had been so sarcasm in Yuki's tone, but there might as well have been for how she was acting. "I'm sorry." Was all she said, before rising from the table and waiting for Shigure to show her to his study.

As the pair left the room, Tohru turned to Yuki.  
"So you do know her? I guess you didn't recognise her when she was an animal. Who is she?"  
Yuki let out a soft sigh. "She's Tamiko Kasai. That's all we really know about her. One day she just...turned up, in the Sohma household. She had long hair then, she cut it short once she got removed from the main house. Akira, Akito's father found her interesting and some say he had a soft spot for her. His wife wasn't too happy about that, as you'd imagine. So he dismissed her from the main house yet allowed her to live in the compound, something no outsider had ever done before. Then after a number of years Akito became the head of the family, some things happened...Akito got mad... and she disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Tohru repeated, frowning. "Why?"

"No one really knows. Only four people do, and that's Akito, Shigure, Ayame and Hatori." Yuki replied, looking thoughtful. "Whatever it was, it had to be bad. Miss Kasai isn't easily swayed by threats or violence. She gives as good as she gets."

"I don't understand though. I mean, she says she remembers you but how could she if she was only three at the time? Does she have a really good memory? And how could she be alive when Akira was?"

Yuki smiled. Tohru was so innocent and naive, and forever asked questions, but he wasn't yet sure if he could tell her about it. After all, it was Tamiko's secret to share and not his. "It's a secret." He replied in the same mysterious voice he'd used on their first meeting.

Tohru smiled. "Another secret?"

Yuki chuckled. "Yes, another secret." To take his mind off of just what Tamiko and Shigure were discussing, he added, "Do you need to get any groceries Miss Honda?"

"Oh, yes! I was going to do it soon, why? Do you want to come along?"

He smiled brightly. "I'd like that."

Tohru stood up from the table and ran upstairs to get her coat. "Do you think I should get extra for Tamiko? She might want to stay for dinner!" she called from the stairs.

"I sure she'd love to." He replied a little quieter, but loud enough for her to hear. He hoped she did, anyway. She would, unless that stupid dog said something to upset or offend her. Yuki secretly hoped that Shigure wouldn't screw it up.


	3. Feline clashes

Shigure's study was as untidy as it usually was. It was the only room Tohru hadn't stepped foot in since she moved there, and Shigure argued it was because he needed the mess to keep his creative streak flowing. Tohru had watched him with shining eyes and had promised not to touch his study, but Kyo and Yuki had just insulted his intelligence. And even Tamiko, who was used to living in pretty bad conditions, couldn't understand how anyone could breathe in here. The desk was full of clutter, some being reference materials, others sheets of paper that had been written on and discarded to be added later. There were even the occasional crumpled paper balls that had missed their destination of the bin and fallen short in their journey. Shigure took his seat behind the desk and brushed a few books onto the floor and motioned that she sit on the chair opposite him. She did as he asked silently, and waited until Shigure cleared his throat.

"So, why did you not want to speak in front of Yuki and Tohru Honda?" He began.

"Because their young minds don't need to be troubled by my problems." She answered curtly, hooking a leg over her other.

Shigure looked her up and down. "It looks odd, you saying something like that when you look barely two years older than them."

"Oh shut up." She snapped. "I thought you wanted to know why I dropped by?"

Shigure leaned forward. "I'm hanging on the edge of my seat."

"Don't use sarcasm on me." Tamiko scorned, folding her arms. "I'm here because I had an epiphany."

"An epiphany? What an epic way to describe a sudden realisation. You should be a poet, Tamiko."

"Didn't I tell you to shut up?" When he didn't say anything in retaliation, she presumed he'd finished and continued. "I realised that running away had only made me the weaker one. After all the insults I threw, I was the one who ended up being the most pathetic of all. And that running away had only made me a coward. My duty, the reason I'm here is to help and protect the Sohma family. And I abandoned that duty. How I thought I would be able to break out of the circle doing that is anybody's guess. And I remembered the younger ones. I realised they needed me too. Not just you. You've grown up. Well..." she angled her head to the side, surveying him critically, "That could be debated I imagine."

"Oh stop, you flatterer!" He said, pressing a hand to his chest.

"Did you hear anything I just said?" she asked tiredly, raising one eyebrow.

"Of course I did. And it took you ten years to come up with that, did it?"

She was on her feet in seconds, the chair turned over and its legs stuck in the air like a dead rodent. "You dare make a stab at me for that! What I went through...what happened..."

"Was in the past." Shigure finished for her. "Why didn't you just move on?"

"Don't you realise how hard it would have been for me? To see him every day, walking past him _knowing_..."

Shigure's hand fell upon hers reassuringly. "Tamiko." He said softly. She gritted her teeth in her frustration at being denied her right to let her anger explode, but as she looked down at his hand all her tense muscles seemed to relax and she drew her hand into her body, sliding his free.

"I know it was you, 'Gure. You were the one who divulged that information. But I don't care. Not anymore. You're my friend, and I know you did it because you were squeezed." She lowered her head slightly. "Which is why I humbly ask if I could stay a few nights in your home. Just for a few nights, until I get my own place to live. I left my old one behind, along with most of my belongings. A new start. Something everyone wants, huh?"

He gave her no reply, merely stared at her. She guessed it was to do with her stab at a theory, and it gave her great amusement to find that it was pretty close to the truth. She was sure that if she stared long enough, his jaw would drop open.

"Shigure?" she prompted, scooting closer to the desk. "Is that okay? My staying here?"

He seemed to get over the initial shock and nodded rapidly, adopting a light, breezy voice. "Oh yes, that's fine, this house needs another flower to grace its doors, ha…"

"More like a poison ivy." Tamiko muttered, half to herself as she quickly righted the chair back to its original position.

"Does that mean you're going to reacquaint yourself with the others? Hatori?" She froze at his words.

"H-Hatori? Why would he need me?"

Shigure shrugged and leaned back in his chair. "Oh, I don't know, maybe to reminisce the good old days when we were teenagers and had no values…"

"Don't toy with me." She half-spat. "Why would he need me? What's happened to him?"

Shigure shrugged, clearly enjoying her concealed distress. "You'd have to see him for yourself to find out. As a friend, I'm not allowed to tell you anything."

Tamiko stared at him, shock etched onto her features. Then her eyes narrowed. "You're a prat, you know that?"

He looked up at her smugly from his chair as she turned on her heel and strode out of the room. "Of course I do." He reclined slightly on his seat and began to wonder if, despite her rage at his words, she would follow his advice and meet with Hatori. It had been a long time, so long that both had possibly moved on, but they still had scores to settle whether Tamiko liked it or not. And, as a friend of theirs, Shigure found it his duty to get the mess she left cleared up.  
He cringed at the word 'mess' as he looked around the state that was his study. He liked mess, but even he admitted it was a pigsty. Perhaps he wasn't the _best_ person to try and advise about changing; he'd virtually stayed the same since he was sixteen. But that being said, he was the only one willing enough to do it. Closing his eyes, he contented in letting his mind drift happily to areas reserved only for such occasions.

The only teenager remaining in the house had finally simmered down from the previous confrontation he'd had with Yuki. Kyo only retreated from the roof once he felt the raging inferno in the pit of his stomach fizzle out to a slowly flickering flame, dropped to the ground and re-entered the house. It was mostly to do with the fact that it concerned Tohru when he was gone sulking too long. And besides, he'd learnt to control his anger a little bit more since she'd started living there. He didn't like to make her worry, not for long anyway. He glanced around a little sharply- it was too quiet for there to be everyone inside.

"Tohru?" he called out. There was no reply, something Tohru always gave if she was around. Running a hand through his fiery hair, he walked towards the kitchen idly, wondering whether she was in there preparing a meal and simply hadn't heard him. He paused, a thought entering his mind. She was probably out getting more food for them; she'd mentioned having to go to the supermarket at some point yesterday evening. That would explain the silence. There was always some kind of noise whenever she was around, be it whistling or singing. She certainly brought a new kind of life to the place, something no one else had managed to accomplish. Maybe Shigure had been right when he called her a 'flower'. She did brighten up the place.

He assumed the damn rat was with her too, seeing as he couldn't hear his whiny voice coming from anywhere. He paused as he reached the door. Come to think of it, he hadn't heard any of Shigure's wisecracks for a while, either. The dog was always bothering and taunting him, it had become a kind of project of his. So he was either working on his novel or he'd gone out too. Kyo immediately dismissed the former idea, knowing full well that Shigure would never do work just because his tortured soul of an editor asked him to. So, was it true he was alone in the house? That was a rare occurrence, and was definitely something that had to be cherished.

He moved into the kitchen and stopped dead. The fridge door was swung open wide, concealing whoever or whatever it was from sight. All he could see was a black jean-clad rear protruding from behind the fridge door.

"Hey, what the hell's going on?!" Kyo demanded, his temper starting to boil over once more.

A head shot up to reveal a purple-haired teenager, her eyes wide in surprise. She had a slice of ham dangling from her mouth as a prize from her scavenging attempts, and her teeth bit into it violently when her head made contact with the top of the fridge.

"Bugger!" she cursed. She rubbed her head as pain blossomed from the sore spot whilst taking a step back with the ham still clenched between her teeth. That in turn made her collide into one of the tops, making more pain explode from her lower back. Instead of crying out, a dull, muffled groan resounded from her mouth, as though she was bored of her clumsiness and the pain it brought on.

"Just stop moving or you're gonna trash the place!" Kyo yelled, rushing over to her to give her a piece of his mind.

If he'd been expecting a ton of apologies like he got from Tohru, he was majorly surprised.

"I can move if I want to!" she replied, a scowl appearing on her face which looked rather comical despite the situation thanks to the ham.

"Not if you're a walking disaster! And shut the fridge door, idiot!"

"What are you, my mother?" She said distastefully, but shut the door anyway by kicking it heftily closed with her foot.

"Shut the hell up, you can't just waltz into a house and steal food!"

"One, I did not waltz, I walked, and two, this is not stealing, and", she took the ham out of her mouth and wiggled it at him, "This doesn't technically count as food, it's a snack."

"You have some nerve, you damn girl!"

"And you have some attitude, stupid cat!"

Kyo stopped, his hands curling into fists. "How do you know who I am?"

She smirked, a cocky sheen to it that made his temper flare even more. "Because I do."

"You have such a nerve! What is your problem?!"

"You're the one with the problem!"

"Oh Kyo you clumsy boy, what did you break this time?" came a breezy voice. Oh great. Shigure. That was all he needed.

"I didn't touch anything, it was that _**girl!**_" he yelled, half-flailing his arms to prove his point further.

'That girl' raised an eyebrow at his exclamation. "'Gure, I think you need to reintroduce poor Kyo to me."

Before he knew it, Shigure had pushed him into her, causing Kyo to disappear in a puff of smoke and a 'pop' at the same time as Tamiko. "It's Tamiko! She's staying with us for a while! I'm sure you remember her!" The dog piped up, his face practically shining with happiness.

Kyo shook himself as the cloud disappeared, fully formed into a ginger cat. His hackles were soon up and he was hissing venomously. He'd been caught off guard by Shigure's trick and was furious that he'd not had his wits about him. It was supposed to be expected, coming from someone like his cousin. How had he not been suspicious? Stupid Dog. "Just once I want to hit you so hard that-Tamiko?" His train of thought was completely hauled off the tracks at Shigure's words, and his hackles went down. **_Tamiko. _**"Tamiko?" he repeated dumbly.

What was in her place after their collision was a delicate looking Siamese cat. She looked at the ginger cat calmly through narrowed ice blue eyes. When he said her name however, she looked all the more friendly; she even purred. "Yeah, it's me. How you been?"

He gave her an odd look, before hissing at her and rushing past Shigure and, by the sound being emitted from above them, he had thudded his way up the stairs to his room. "Oh, Kyo's so rude, please excuse him!" Shigure tutted. "He has no sense of manners, and-"

"Forget it, Shigure." His face dropped as he saw that the cat Tamiko's serene look was still on her face. She was amused. She found Kyo funny? "I thought as much. I knew he'd stomp off to have a tantrum in his room until he unleashed all his happiness at seeing me." She even let a small mewling chuckle escape her. "Sweet."

Shigure just stared at her. How she thought Kyo was _sweet_ when he got into these moods he didn't know. Sure, it was amusing to get him _into _the situations, but getting him out of them were toehr matters. Tamiko still confused him, even after knowing her for so long. He instead decided to retreat back to his study without getting the food he'd gone for.

Tamiko watched him go and glanced back at the fridge shrewdly, her tail twitching curiously. Sure, that Tohru Honda had gone to get food, but there was still some left. "Y'know, I think you need to serve me a bit more." She hissed to the fridge, before nudging the door open with her nose and leaping into the compartments in her search for anything else edible.


	4. Sick as a mimicker?

**Author's note: Woo, first one! I just wanna say thank you to those guys out there who have given me reviews or faved 'Teardrop', becayse I'm really grateful for it. Just to say, that in this fic (especially this chapter it appears) some things mentioned or said by the characters create assumptions about their relationship with Tamiko. I'd just like to say that Kyo hasn't got any feelings for Tamiko in the romantic sense whatsoever. His actual feelings are explained at some point later. And also...FINALLY, Haru's introduced! 3 And good ol' Haa'ri's gonna make his appearence in the next chapter ^_^ That's all, Kes out!  
**

Meanwhile, Tohru and Yuki had reached the supermarket and were getting the food scribbled hastily down by Tohru that morning, before Tamiko had burst in. Tohru was bustling around happily, chatting animatedly to Yuki about what she was planning to prepare and make for them that night for dinner, adding with a hint of worry that she didn't know what Tamiko liked.

Yuki just smiled politely. "I'm sure Miss Kasai will like whatever you put in front of her."

"But what if she has allergies? What if I bring on a reaction or something?! What if-"

"You won't bring on a reaction of any sort where Miss Kasai is concerned. Don't worry, Miss Honda." Yuki cut in, knowing that if he let her get too ahead of herself she'd get herself worked up into a fleeting panic. Tohru was always thinking of others before herself, and was so caring it sometimes gave her the worst ordeal. "And", he added, "She eats like a horse. She'll eat anything put in front of her."

"I wonder how she keeps a trim figure." Tohru remarked, picking up some milk from the fridge and making her way over to the waiting server.

Yuki followed her. "She more than burns it off, believe me."

Tohru giggled at his comment and set the food on the counter, getting out her money owed. "Well, I did wonder!"

"Mmm." He turned away from her a little, evidently deep in thought. "She...means well. She's a good person." Tohru tilted her head to one side, paying quietly as he continued, "She just sometimes says and does things she doesn't mean. And she's got a great degree of hurt in her heart that she doesn't let others see. The others admire her for that, they think it's strong, but I think it's stupid." He closed his eyes. "Stupid to hide away when all everyone wants to do is help you. Such a hypocrite."

Tohru just stared at him, her eyes wide with innocence. Tamiko...had been _hurt_? Well, that much had been obvious to her; the scars she'd sported were evidence enough. But hurt... inside? She'd seemed such a bright and breezy person, it was the least she suspected from the older, confident teenager. "Yuki." She began, picking her bags up from the counter and thanking her server politely.

"Hmm?"

"How...has Tamiko been hurt?" she watched him pause. "Her eye...those scars...surely someone did those, right? And those scars you say she has on her heart."

Yuki looked down at the floor, then the polite smile was back. "I'll hold some of those bags for you, Miss Honda. They look heavy." He took the heaviest bags from her and smiled again, though Tohru could tell through the months of living with him that there was a sadness behind that smile that hadn't been there before. And with a curious mind, she traipsed home with him.

* * * * * *

"Shigure, Kyo, we're home!" Tohru called as she and Yuki entered the house. They heard a muffled 'welcome back' from Shigure's study but there was no confirmation that Kyo had even heard them, let alone bothered to bless them with a response.

"Huh, I wonder where he is?" Tohru wondered aloud, wandering down towards the kitchen.

"I don't know and I don't particularly care. He's probably still sulking like a child on the roof." Yuki answered scathingly, looking up at the ceiling as if to prove his point.

Tohru just shook her head and walked into the kitchen. "I hope he's alri-HORSE!"

Yuki blinked at her outburst. "Horse?"

"In the... in the kitchen." Tohru managed to splutter.

"What?" Yuki rushed to her side and just stared at the scene before him.

There was indeed a horse led in the middle of the kitchen, its sides heaving heavily as though it had just returned from a long gallop and its eyes were tightly shut. It was a pretty colour, Tohru thought; its head and legs were ink black, but its body was a mottled collection of grey and silver on top of the black to make a soft blue hue. Its nostrils were flaring widely and despite its legs being tucked neatly underneath its body it was obvious it hadn't fallen voluntarily.

"H-Horse! How did a horse get in here?! Did it escape from somewhere, is it wild, how did it get into the kitchen, I shut all the windows, but a horse wouldn't fit through the windows anyway, oh but none of the doors were open..."

"It's okay." Came a familiar voice, sounding a little odd without it being raised to a yelling volume. Kyo was sat cross-legged in front of the horse's head, his hand laid on its long neck and entwining his fingers in its short, cropped black mane. "It's just the damn Mimicker. She ate some bad food, it made her sick. Idiot." It was scornful, and yet Kyo's tone was a bit softer than it usually would be, something that took both Yuki and Tohru by surprise. When they made no comment, he froze and sprang up from his place. "Not that I care, I was just saying! She's a damn idiot, who wouldn't know that any food left in the fridge when you were gonna get more was gone off?"

"You've done that before." Yuki said bluntly, unimpressed as per usual at the Cat.

"I have not, I spat it out the second I realised!"

"You still did it before."

"You shut up!"

A black leg then shot out, contacting angrily with one of the tops to make a loud 'bang' in order to startle the bickering boys. "I think you should both shut up before I lamp you one!" The horse yelled out in Tamiko's voice, although even Tohru could tell it was a lot weaker than it was before.

Both froze like rumbled schoolboys. They looked at each other and scowled. "But he started it." They both said in unison. That started the argument off again.

"Oh, so you think _I_ started it do you, dumb rat!"

"Save your breath to yell at another unimportant fact, stupid cat."

"I warned you!" She yelled, and then she was on her feet, swaying weakly in her evident state. Her eyes almost spat fire at the teenagers. "Stop it right now or I will not hesitate in kicking or nipping you!"

"P-please don't fight, I don't want you to!" Tohru tried meekly, but it was no use.

"Who are you to stop us, you dumb idiot! You're not our mothers!" Kyo shot at her.

Tamiko stood her ground, her tail flicking out behind her as she drove a hoof firmly into the floor. "I said 'stop'. Are you really so rude to your superior, Kyo?"

"Who are you calling superior, you left for so long, you left us all to work out our own problems when you would say to never run away or give up? Some superior you turned out to be. You don't even deserve the title 'sensei.'" Kyo replied angrily.

He really had done it that time.

"That's it, you little brat!" Even if Tamiko was ill, she moved pretty fast. Her head whipped out of nowhere, and with a sharp cry a perfect bite-mark smarted from where her teeth had descended.

"You bitch! What was that for?!" Kyo cursed, holding his wounded arm.

Tamiko lifted her head up a little higher, her eyes dancing and her ears flat back against her neck, the expression of pure fury in horses. "You know damn well what that was for, foolish cat. Your tongue is far too loose for it to be good... for... you..." Once the pent up excitement she'd let explode out of her had dried up, she began to look weak once again. "Please excuse me, I think I'm gonna be sick again."

"Tamiko, horses can't be sick! Stop being stupid and change back!" Yuki said, concern evident in his tone as he walked towards her.

"It's...difficult to when I'm so weak...and also..." before she could complete her sentence, she managed to successfully faze back with a 'poof' and a cloud of smoke. "I'm gonna be naked." She finished, sighing resignedly.

Both Kyo and Yuki looked away from her out of embarrassment, both feeling their blushes colour their cheeks a tasteful pink colour. Tohru however, couldn't _not_ look. As the cloud cleared away, Tamiko was standing with half her body curled up in the foetal position, her head ducking against her chest as though she was trying to protect herself. Her body was as slender as her clothes made her out to be, but she was a lot curvier than Tohru had thought as Tamiko straightened up, hugging her arms to her cover her nakedness. She didn't pay much attention to the girl's body contours, however; what she'd noticed was the position of the two scars she'd seen both on her dog and horse form. One was a cruel white line that when fresh would have sliced open most of her stomach, and despite being quite thin Tohru assumed it was much deeper and serious than it looked. And the other seemed the most horrific; from where Tamiko placed her arms to cover herself from the boy's glances it was difficult to see, but from what she could see, Tohru bit her lip in pain for the girl before her. This scar was much deeper than the others, and it slashed cleanly and cruelly across her right breast. It looked like a knife or shard of glass had been responsible for the injury, and the diagonal angle from which it sliced through her made it look like it had been created with a great deal of force. Tohru wasn't sure if there was more than just that mark, but that was enough. She felt tears spring to her eyes. "Tamiko..."

"Don't give me your pity." The voice was sharp, much sharper than it had been before. "I don't want or deserve it." Tohru looked back up at her. Tamiko's face was like thunder, as though it had been a great insult to her that someone had seen her. "This is why I trained so hard to keep my clothes on me when I change back. Because I don't want to see that look on anyone's faces."

"But...surely they only want to help..." Tohru began.

"I don't need help! I can take care of myself!" Tamiko spat, her glare deepening. Without waiting for Tohru's response to her outcry, she looked down on the ground and found her clothes in a heap on the floor. "Only good thing about being a Mimicker is that your clothes don't get ruined." She muttered savagely to herself, the anger still swimming in her voice as she began to pull on her clothing. "If you guys are looking, I'll kill you." She threw over her shoulder at Kyo and Yuki.

"Why would I look?!" Kyo yelled back indignantly.

"No, I promise I wouldn't look at you, Miss Kasai." Yuki replied calmly.

"I didn't think you would, Yuki. It's the carrot-top I was inferring to." She replied amid the rant of denial from Kyo. After doing up her bra clasp and pulling her top on over her head a little scruffily, she looked back at Tohru and raised an eyebrow daringly. "You may have seen, but I advise you not to tell anyone. I won't threaten you unless I really need to. So, please do not speak about it to anyone else. Got that?"

"Y-yes ma'am!"

Tamiko then smiled lightly. "Good. Now...someone show me where the bathroom is so I can be sick to my heart's content. I think I'll have to skip dinner, I wouldn't want to upset my appetite any more." She hastened a glance at Tohru, her friendly side sliding back through. "You don't mind, do you? I'm sorry if I put you out at all."

"No, it's okay, I wasn't sure what to get you anyway, but yes I did get food for you but it's okay, you can just have it when you want it!" Tohru burst out in a huge, messy rush of words that made Tamiko blink for a moment to let it set in. When it had, she nodded and looked over at the two boys.

"Uh, could one of you show me?"

"Why not Tohru?" Kyo demanded.

"Because Tohru is cooking dinner for you, she plans to slave to your growling stomachs and she probably does enough in this house. So, one of you show me where the bathroom is." Tamiko snapped back.

Before Kyo could retort, Yuki stepped towards her. "I'll show you. This way."

"Thank you Squeaker, at least someone's a gentleman." She walked out of the kitchen after Yuki and shot a glance at Kyo as she passed. For one fleeting moment, red and blue connected with the same level of emotion in them, before she was gone, following Yuki up the stairs to the awaiting bathroom.

Kyo stayed silent for a moment, then rubbed the back of his neck agitatedly. "Jeez, that Tamiko. She gets me so wired up, I don't even know why. It pisses me off. No one else gets me like that except the damn rat."

"But it's not the same." Tohru piped up. When he shot her a curious glance, she continued, "I mean, you're not trying to fight Tamiko or hurt her at all."

He ran a hand through his hair as she spoke. "It's not that kinda wired. It's difficult to explain, I guess. She's just something completely strange and outta sync that my mind can't seem to get around. Like she's some sorta enigma." He shook his head. "Whatever the hell she is, something's gotta be up if she's back."  
Tohru looked questioningly at him but he made no move to elaborate on his words.

* * * * * *

"Haru, Haru, you'll never guess what I found out today!"

_What does he want now? _The boy whose name had been called lifted his head lazily at the sound. A small portion of white hair the colour of ivory fell down in front of his eyes and he brushed it away with a hand carelessly, revealing two stone grey eyes, and as he set the tired-looking novel down on the grass, stretched. He had been sat perfectly happily underneath the shade of a tree in his front garden, turning the pages of the book he'd been reading idly and calmly, before the hyperactive kid had come bounding up. His mouth turned up at the corners slightly as he thought that- the very 'kid' he was on about was exactly the same age as he was. He was always called very mature for his age, by both the adults and his teenage relations, come to think of it, and even his thought processes proved it. Staring up at the other teenager with no emotion whatsoever written on his face, he asked, "What is it Momiji?"

"Something really _**kühl**_!" The blonde piped up, his milky brown eyes large with happiness, which was a typical expression he held on his face. Hatsuharu actually smiled then. Momiji really _was_ short. And childish. Still, he was like a brother to him, and seeing as he did like the company sometimes, he humoured his presence, despite the almost dizzying heights or hyperactivity he had contained inside him.

"What is it Momiji?" he repeated. "And if it's about you changing back in front of girls again warn me so I can plug my ears."

"No, nothing like that!" Momiji plonked himself down next to Haru with a bright smile. "I heard from Kagura, who heard from Hiro, who heard from one of the maids who-"

"Is this going anywhere?" Hatsuharu asked, raising an eyebrow placidly. His comment was either ignored or not heard by the excitable Rabbit.

"-heard from Shigure that Miss Kasai's back!" Momiji finished, practically clapping his hands together.

Hatsuharu immediately straightened up. "Tamiko's back?"

Momiji nodded energetically. "Isn't it great? Everything's gonna be back to how it was, she can tell us stories and mess around with us, and we can all have fun!" Momiji's face fell however when he saw that Hatsuharu wasn't joining in with his excitement. He was just staring at him with the same cool and collected mask he always used. "What's wrong, Haru? Aren't you happy she's back?"

"I am happy, but I'm concerned too." A small frown laced his features. "What's Akito going to say when he finds out? You know he wants to know everything that happens in our lives, Sohma or not."

"You don't think he'll be angry at her, do you Haru?" Momiji asked, worry tugging at the end of his question.

He shrugged. Truthfully, he thought Akito would be furious. He may have only been six years old when she'd left, but he hadn't been stupid. He could feel the resentment emanating off Akito in vile waves that clung to the trees and strangled the happiness as he'd stood on the main house's porch beside his father watching her go. He'd felt like that when she'd gone-how would he feel now she'd returned? About triple that amount, Hatsuharu guessed. Still, she was back. He'd missed her. The one 'grown-up' who hadn't thought or said he was a stupid, dumb ox, and had had the immaturity to play in the mud with him and the maturity to get him home on time and tell him stories. Yeah, he'd missed her. "Why don't we go visit Shigure's house, Momiji?" He said suddenly.

The Rabbit looked a little startled. "Really? That's a great idea!"

"Don't look so surprised." Hatsuharu looked out across his garden and to the house opposite him. The kids who lived there were playing out in the garden. He watched them run around the place, screaming with glee, as he added, "We'll have to ask one of the adults to take us. If I was going alone I'd walk, but I don't trust myself with you coming along too. I'd get the both of us lost."

"Okay, I'll go ask Haa'ri!" Momiji said happily, jumping up and half-skipping away.

Hatsuharu watched him go and picked his book back up, but none of the words were truly sinking in now. Hatori was their chauffeur most of the time, but he couldn't help feeling that having _him_ take them was a bad idea. "Oh well", he said aloud, turning the page of his book, "We'll soon find out."


	5. A memory and a reunion

"Shigure, she's doing it again!"

"She can't help it, stupid cat."

"Don't call me stupid! You should be calling her stupid for eating food like that!"

Tohru sighed lightly as she watched the two boys bickering once again around the dinner table. They never seemed to stop, but when they didn't she found it unnerving. Although, she had to admit Kyo had a point. They'd been treated to the harmony of Tamiko puking all night, and as every hour had gone by, she could see the ginger boy's temper slowly rising to boiling point. It was quite easy to get Kyo rattled up enough that he'd explode, but he was feeling particularly edgy lately. Shigure kept telling her it was still the rain from the previous night that was making him feel like this, but Tohru had other ideas..._ "She gets me so wired up, I don't even know why."_ That's what he'd said. Maybe Tamiko had a lasting effect on him, though why Tohru had no idea. She knew that curiosity would get the best of her sooner or later, so she decided to talk to Tamiko about it-of course, once she'd stopped being sick.

At another chorus of heaving, Kyo snapped. "That's it! Shigure, call Hatori or something, I can't take her anymore!"

Shigure's face practically lit up. "What a great idea, Kyo!"

The teenagers stared at him, dumbfounded. He _never_ said any idea of Kyo's was good. Something had to be up. "You're not plotting anything, are you Shigure?" Yuki asked, his question laced with suspicion as his older cousin looked a little awkward.

"Of course not, Yuki! Tut tut, shun the non believer! Tamiko needs medical assistance, so we must call Hatori, isn't that logical enough?" He grinned and rose from the table. "I'll go call him!"

They all watched him go, and Yuki commented, "I still think he's up to something."

"Oh, no. He's just being considerate. He obviously didn't want to drag Hatori out here if it wasn't necessary. But seeing as Tamiko's in a bad way, he's doing it for her." Tohru replied brightly.  
Yuki and Kyo just stared at her.

"How long have you known him, Tohru?" Kyo asked, raising an eyebrow. "You know as well as I do he's a sneaky, conniving little pervert."

"Oh, you shouldn't say things like that about him! He's a good person!"

"Whatever." Kyo rose from the table too. "I'll go check on her. She might've transformed randomly again." There was next to no emotion on his face as he walked away, but there was a slight urgency to his pace.

Yuki followed Kyo's progress out of the room and shook his head, a small smile on his face.

"What is it, Yuki?" Tohru inquired.

"He tries not to care, but he does. He's worried that Miss Kasai is gravely ill and wants to make sure she's alright. He's a fool to hide it just because he thinks it's weak in front of me."

"Huh?!" Tohru gaped. "B-but that's a very good quality! Caring for people is something to be admired and shared, not hidden!"

"But this is Kyo we're talking about. He doesn't like to show he cares, because people assume he doesn't. He's the cat. Everyone hates the cat, so they presume the cat hates everyone back. But he greatly admires Miss Kasai."

"He does?"

Yuki nodded. "We've all known her since we were very young. For Kyo, she was the only adult who actually spoke to him apart from Kazuma. He owes a lot to her."

"Oh." Tohru looked at the door Kyo had just exited out of. "I wondered what it was."

Kyo's falsities broke once he reached the bottom of the stairs. After checking that no one was watching him, he launched himself forwards, taking the steps two at a time. She was stupid, so stupid, he kept repeating that to everyone who would listen. But, it had reminded him of a time before, when he'd been younger...

_"Tamii, what are you doing?"  
She spun around with a fillet of fish in one hand. Putting a finger to her lips, she shushed him quietly. "Kyo, why do you call me that? My name's Tamiko, silly! Keep quiet or Shishou will hear us! We're having a midnight feast, 'kay?"  
He stared up at her with wide eyes. "Midnight...feast?" Those words had been like a foreign language to him.  
"Jeez, what do they teach kids nowadays?" She'd said exasperatedly, turning to face him. On a plate she had a selection of food- the fillet of fish, onigri, and...  
"Eew, leeks!" He made a face.  
She had smiled then, her unscarred face full of life and laughter. "Oh little Ume, you have to learn to eat your greens!"  
"Never leeks! Never, never, never!" He stuck his tongue out at the leeks, making her laugh. It was a light, tinkling noise, something that reminded him of a wind-chime.  
"C'mon squirt, I'll share the fish with you. Fish for the cat!"  
He'd laughed, laughed so freely that he felt he could burst...  
_

"Kyo, are you stalking me or something?" Tamiko's voice demanded in a husky tone. He broke out of the memory quickly as he realised he'd reached the bathroom and was waiting outside the door.

"H-how did you know I was outside?"

"I could hear your heavy footfalls miles away." Came her snide reply. He then heard a curious 'pop' noise. He knew what that meant...

He didn't bother to snap back in his hurry, and prised the door open. "Are you..." his voice trailed off. His suspicions were right. The idiot had transformed. Into a seahorse. "Goddamn you!" he yelled, panic taking over as he rushed to the bath and filled it with water as fast as he could. "Damnit, why couldn't you have changed into something different?!"He only got a raspy burble in reply.  
After the bath was filled enough to submerge the seahorse Tamiko in, he picked her up delicately and placed her in the water gently. Her large eyes stared up at him as he began to breathe properly, her fins wiggling as she waited for the water to get deep enough for her to swim in.  
"Out of all the animals you could have mimicked, why a seahorse?" He asked, slumping down beside the bath and looking down at her. In this form, he noticed, she couldn't answer him. She just blinked at him slowly, as though she was focused entirely on him. In reality of course, he knew she was just waiting to turn back into her normal self. He rolled his eyes and contented himself in watching her.

She wasn't the same colour as Hatori was; she was a soft grey colour, with a mottled sheen to her that made her look almost lilac in some lights. There were still the scars she possessed in every form patterned across her body, just shrunk down to match the shape of her seahorse self. "What did you do to yourself?" Kyo said aloud then. He was genuinely curious. She'd not had those scars when she'd been there before, when she'd had that stupid midnight feast with him. What had happened?

An angry squeak came from the seahorse, and Kyo could imagine that her eyes were narrowed at him as her fins waggled rapidly. She didn't want to talk about it. She didn't like remembering. He frowned lightly at her, then his ears picked up the distant noise of the main door opening and the muffled voices of Hatori and someone else he couldn't quite pinpoint...

"Kyo! Is she decent?!" he heard Shigure sing up the stairs at him. "You're not doing anything indecent are you?"

Kyo's hands clenched into fists. "Shut the hell up! She transformed!"

"Because Kyo hugged her!"

"You know that hardly ever happens with her! Not that I hugged her! Just... shut up, you damn dog!"

"Well, someone's come to visit!! Momiji and Haru and Haa'ri are here to see herrr!" Shigure dragged out the 'r' in his playfulness.

The seahorse splashed around in the bath hazardously, its eyes close to exploding with how large they were. Kyo turned back to her. "Hey, don't burst a blood vessel, it's only Hatori and Haru!" he snapped.

Another angry squeak from her. Kyo took one moment to notice that the seahorse's cheeks were a littler redder than usual, before in a puff of smoke Tamiko was sat in the tiny amount of water in the bath, completely naked. "Kyo, you idiot, don't look!" She cried, whacking him on the head in her efforts to turn him around. He needed no encouraging; he cursed and spun around, his cheeks feeling as though they were on fire, and flung a towel at her. "I should have paid more attention, bloody Shigure surprising me like that! Oh no, no, no, no! He can't see me like this, he just _**can't**_!" She said in a panic, standing up out of the water and wrapping the towel around her securely. "Kyo, get my underwear!" she ordered. She was in the middle of her attempts at drying herself, and the order surprised Kyo.

"I'm not touching your underwear!" He said in absolute horror, his face turning even redder.

"Just do it!" she yelled at him. And with the tone she used, he couldn't help obeying. Muttering something under his breath, he tossed her bra and knickers over to her, his face threatening to burn up

if she made him do anything else. "Thank you, Kyo!" she cried, grabbing them and pulling them on.

She was halfway into doing up her bra clasp when Hatsuharu walked in, Momiji tugging on his arm like a younger sibling. Haru froze at the sight that met him, his eyes practically popping out of their sockets, whereas Momiji just gawped at the teenager before them. "Haru, Miss Kasai's got better ones than Rin has!"

"Don't be lewd, Momiji." Hatsuharu responded, his eyes never leaving her. Tamiko gaped soundlessly as though her seahorse form had taken over her reflexes and spun around, lowering her head and cringing to herself. "Tamiko?"

She flinched as she heard his voice directed at her. She couldn't help turning around ever so slowly to set her eyes on Hatsuharu. "Haru?"  
He'd changed since she'd last met him. Last time, he had been an angry, violent little boy with a temper of a roman legion, and here he was, fifteen years old and rather attractive. His snowy-white hair brushed over his face to slightly conceal his stone grey irises, and the only colour in his hair was the ebony at the nape of his neck. He had on a simple black vest with an assortment of necklaces hanging loosely around his neck, along with a pair of jeans and chaps over them. He paused as their eyes met, and he said her name again, as though he were trying to make sure she'd stay there.  
She nodded silently in answer to his question and bit her lip, pulling on her jeans hurriedly. "It's me." She said in a meek voice. After pulling on her top she walked closer to them, raising an eyebrow. "You've all changed so much."

"Uh-huh, I've got taller!" Momiji said happily, his face shining with happiness.

Tamiko smiled at him. "You sure have."

"And, and Tamiko? You gotta still play with me, okay? We still gotta go do stuff together, right?"

She laughed lightly. "Right. Promise."

Momiji practically bounced with excitement. "Great! I'm gonna go see Tohru and tell her the good news!"

As he bounded out of the room, Tamiko watched Hatsuharu's expression neutralise into his typical one. "It's been years, Tamiko. 10 years you've been gone."

She lowered her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to abandon you. You, Momiji, Kyo, Yuki... I missed you like a limb. Please don't think it was because I didn't want to see you."

"I know you wouldn't have left unless you thought it necessary." Hatsuharu said smoothly, watching warily as she took a step forwards.

She chuckled lightly, shaking her head with a soft smile. "You have changed so much, Hatsuharu. You seem so adult and grown up now, you even have that look in those eyes of yours. You'd think you were twenty five, not fifteen. It has been far too long. Far too long."

Hatsuharu bowed his head slightly. "It is nice to see you again, Tamiko."

"I said it's been years. So cut the niceties, you don't need to bore yourself with those details and formalities." She said, grinning widely before stepping forwards and taking a hold of his top. He looked down at her hands, dumbfounded at her.

"Uh..."

"Remember this?" she said, smirking and tugging at his top gently.

Realisation struck him, and he smiled too. "Hello Tam-Tamii'." He said softly.

She grinned. "Heya Har-Haru." She then let go of his top and grinned again. "And damn you, you're taller than me now. I seem to be cursed with the fate of being forever short. And, technically, I am still three years older than you."

"Maybe...it's a curse." He replied, a smile tugging at his mouth. Kyo took this as a sign to leave too; muttering darkly about 'damn Mimicker' and 'stupid ox' he barged past them and out into the hallway, stomping his way to his room. Hatsuharu didn't pay him much notice; an eyebrow twitched, but nothing more. "I see he's still as cheerful as ever." He remarked.

"Don't be harsh to him, he's had me being sick for the best of four hours." Tamiko said, closing her eyes as the familiar itch of tiredness stole over her.

"Ah, that's it. I wondered why Shigure was so desperate on having Hatori take us over." He looked her up and down with a slightly worried expression. "You're not...bad, are you?"

"What, terminal?" She smirked at him. "Don't worry kid, no food poisoning will get the best of a Kasai. We're meant to have stomachs of steel."

"Well, it appears it's not as hereditary as you thought."

She kept her smirk. "Shut up."

"You two, get down here! We need to get you seen to, if you can move an inch from the sink!" Shigure called from downstairs.  
Tamiko growled her unhappiness and put a hand on her stomach carefully, moving slowly and deliberately out of the room. _Yeah, as if holding your stomach is gonna help stem your urge to puke, Tamiko-baby. _She thought to herself as she sensed Hatsuharu follow her hesitantly. She knew he was aiming on being her support pole if she felt weak, but she kept herself straight. She wasn't going to look weak, especially not in front of _him._ She would rather die than look weak in front of him again.

"It's okay. He won't bite, even if he looks like that. You two were friends anyway, weren't you?" she heard Hatsuharu say behind her.

"We may have been friends, but we're not anymore!" she spat in reply, going down the stairs faster than she anticipated. Before Hatusharu could make any response, she caught her toe on the last but one step which sent her flying forwards. She wind-milled feverishly with her arms to keep her balance and leapt as far as she could out of range, letting out a sharp cry of surprise. She landed with a dull thud in the doorway of the main room, panting heavily and clutching a hand to her now nastily pulsating stomach. "Damnit, who decided to put a step there?" she cursed.

"See Haa'ri, didn't I tell you? She hasn't changed!" Shigure said gleefully.

Tamiko looked up to see a tall man stood before her. His hair was pitch-black and hung over one of his eyes to shield it from sight. The eye she could see was the familiar olive colour, with no emotion contained in it whatsoever. That was one thing she'd thought was odd with him; where everyone else's eyes were so expressive, his weren't. Almost as though they didn't know how to show it. He was wearing a suit the colour of his hair, and she had to admit with a jolt of smugness he looked as shocked as she had. Yeah, this was him alright. The smile had been lost through the years, stowed away under lock and key somewhere, but it was him alright. Hatori.

**Author's note: Oooh, the reintroduction of Tamiko and Hatori! *tenseness* How on earth will they react to each other? You'll have to find out in the next chapter, suckas! ;D I really loved Kyo in this. He really is a sensitive soul, bless him. And those flashbacks are gonna happen more often, they're such fun to do ^^**


	6. Anger and treatment

He looked more than surprised at her entrance-Tamiko supposed he was mirroring her own expression. Her eyes narrowed once she'd spoken his name, as though the meaning of it had hit home. She couldn't help thinking how much he'd changed, and yet stayed the same. It was, well, weird; it got her wondering if she had changed at all in his eyes. She guessed it wouldn't be much, for she barely ever changed her appearance, but Hatori had been a very observant person from what she could recall. Maybe be did notice some differences, apart from the scars.

The tense atmosphere between them was almost solid, and no one dared break it. No one of course, except Shigure. "See, doesn't she look terrible, Hatori? She's white as a sheet, poor thing."

Tamiko's teeth clenched. Shigure knew that if she were in a fitter state of condition she would have hit him right there and then, but the sickness had drained her of every last drop of her energy. She was half-tempted to bite back that she was naturally pale, but Hatori's gaze silenced those screaming thoughts. She felt like a rabbit paralysed by the stare of a stoat. The connection broke when Hatori turned away. "You told me it was Tohru Honda that was ill, Shigure. Lying isn't a good personality trait."

"Oh don't get cranky, I doubted that you'd come if it wasn't Tohru. She's always your top prior-"

Shigure was soon cut off by a smack upside of his head. "Don't be crude." Yuki muttered in disgust. He'd just entered from the kitchen and on hearing his cousin's remark couldn't help himself hitting him. Tamiko felt Hatsuharu shift from behind her in his attempt to reach Yuki. Finding there was no route to him, he let out a soft 'huff' of frustration and just held out one of his hands like a young child to him, and Tamiko could almost see his face being utterly blank. It was cute, the way he clung to Yuki like a security blanket. He certainly hadn't changed in that respect. Though, she thought again about Hatori, for he was now completely avoiding her eye.

"On the contrary, I would have got here at the same time for Yuki or Kyo. You, however, I would make wait simply because you irritate me." Over Shigure's wails of 'that's so unfair!' he added, "So, Miss Kasai, what are your symptoms?"

That threw her off guard. How could he be so neutral, so unfeeling towards her? She hadn't got so much of a greeting from him, let alone a quick chat about how she was. Her hands moulded into fists. He knew _nothing_. "My name is Tamiko, as you know, Hatori. And you're not helping me."

Hatori's expression didn't shift. "I'm a doctor, I can help."

"I know you are, I'm not stupid. You always wanted to be one when you were younger. I knew you'd get to it. But still, you're not helping me." She replied icily.

"I'm here to make you feel better." He said in a dead tone.

"Just you being here is making me feel even worse. Sick." Her narrowed eyes morphed into a furious glare as she added acidly, "You're like a virus, making me sicker and sicker as time goes by. Get out of here, I don't want to see you and I certainly don't need your help. Shigure was wrong to call you. I can handle myself."

She was being so insulting not just to inflict pain on Hatori, pain that she'd long since suffered, but also to provoke a response. She still got nothing. "All the same, I need to check you over." He looked over to Shigure, who had long since fallen silent due to the frostiness of Tamiko's words, and said, "You said she had food poisoning, I remember?"

"Oh, yes. It started earlier, she was throwing up all night." Shigure looked back at Tamiko a little worriedly, as though he was afraid she was going to explode in any second.

"You're not helping me." She repeated firmly. "How many times do I have to tell you? Not until you talk to me."

Hatori raised an eyebrow boredly. "I am talking to you, Miss Kasai."

She raised her head a little higher. "You may be talking to _Miss Kasai, _but you're not talking to _Tamiko_. Stop doing the whole Doctor and patient crap and drop the pretence. I want to talk to _Hatori_, not _Dr. Sohma._"

There it was. A flicker of emotion, crossing his face in one valiant bound. Was it...regret? Sadness? Or maybe even...irritation? "I'm..." he tried, but gave up, sighing. "When did you eat last?"  
Well, she was getting there even if it was one tiny step at a time. She chose to co-operate with his questioning- for now, at least. "Last time I ate was when I ate the food that gave me food poisoning."

"How bad has it been?"

She shrugged. "I transformed twice."

He paused. "What animals?"

"What's that got to do with your symptom analysis?" she said sharply.

His mouth twitched, as though a smile had been fighting valiantly to get freed. "Curiosity."

"The Horse first, then the Dragon. Kyo had to shove me in the bath-tub."

"Uh-huh." Silence fell again. Then he said, "Do you mind if we speak in private for a little while?"

She hesitated. Privacy. That was...a good thing? Sure it was, it could mean that he was ready to talk to her properly. Or it could mean that he wanted to let out all his anger and sorrow on her. Hopefully the former, as the latter didn't seem too progressive for her. Besides, he was the eyes and ears of the Sohma place, and a bit of gossip about dear Akito was something she'd been looking forward to hearing. She gave him a short nod and turned on her heel to walk out of the living room, completely forgetting Haru was there. "Oof!" She knocked into him, and as she'd been taken by surprise, there was a twin 'pop!' and clouds bursting out. And once they cleared, two rather large cows were cramped in the small house.

"Oh no, not in my house!" Shigure wailed, flapping his arms like a child throwing a tantrum. "Every time, it's my house that gets wrecked, every single time!"

"It's fine, just so long as we stand still." Tamiko said, a small cloud of breath emitting from her nose. "Sorry Hatsuharu, I forgot completely." The others couldn't help looking at her form for this, too. The grey seemed to carry on through each form of hers; her cow form was a pale grey colour with the darker patches the colour of rain-laden clouds. Her piercings were visible in her ears, too, as were her usual scars.

Haru, the original black and white version of the form, nudged her gently with his nose. "Don't be sorry, it's okay. Your thoughts were elsewhere, it's understandable."

She sighed out again, causing another small cloud to come from her. "Perfect. I'm such a great person, the first time you seeing me after ten years and I make you turn into a cow."

"Well, I've wanted to see you. So did Momiji. So it's not as though you could disappoint us."

"Yeah, we all know she's a bit of a klutz." Kyo cut in from the other side, obviously narked that his path was blocked by the cattle.

"Hey, watch out, you have the horned end pointing at you." Tamiko scorned, her eyes narrowing as she lowered her head to reveal two small horns on her head.

"Yeah, but the other end is just as hor-"

"Shut up Shigure or you'll get a kick!"

Shigure, surprisingly, shut up. Then Tamiko felt the familiar sense of turning back. She closed her eyes and tried her best to concentrate all her energy into a tiny little ball at the centre of herself. As her energy was waning, it took longer than usual, but she managed it, and when the familiar 'pop' sounded, she stood up fully-clothed and exhausted. Transforming back that way usually took a great deal of effort when she was healthy, but her weakened body had been put under a lot more pressure to achieve it, and as a result was screaming for replenishing. She staggered sideways and missed Kyo by inches, who in turn was forced to pivot on the spot in order to avoid her, cursing under his breath. Her eyes found themselves shutting again as she leaned against the doorway for support, and the familiar noise and rush of wind that ruffled her short hair signalled to her that Hatsuharu had changed back too, and was now totally naked. Joy. She kept her eyes shut, half for Hatsuharu's pride and also for the simple fact that she didn't want to see a naked teenager stood right in front of her in all his glory.  
"C-can we go and talk in private now, Hatori?" she managed to say, but her voice was so weak and frail it scared even her.

She felt a hand descend on her shoulder. "Are you alright Tamiko? You don't look so good." Hatsuharu. Ever the caring one, even when he was naked, as Kyo was heard yelling in frustration at him.

"Ugh...I don't even know anymore...stupid damn ham." She cursed, before feeling her legs go rubbery and a feeling of slowly sinking downwards. It took her a minute or two to realise it was actually because she _was_ sinking to the floor.

"Tamiko! Oh no, what shall we do, has she fainted, is it bad?" she heard Tohru say in her high-pitched, 'oh-no-the-world-is-going-to-end' voice.

She tried to murmur that she was fine, but no sound came out. "She evidently hasn't been drinking. She's just dehydrated, I'll give her some rehydration tablets to sort it out." Hatori suggested, and before she knew it she felt herself being lifted up.

"What the hell?" she managed to say, wriggling around. "Put...me...down...idiot..."

"Don't struggle, it's hard enough as it is."

She stopped. _**Hatsuharu?! What the heck was going on? **_He wasn't Hatori, she thought it had been Hatori who had picked her up. She was a little relieved that it wasn't, or she would have never lived it down. She'd also have been yelling and cursing and hitting him like a sulking toddler who didn't want to go to bed. Still, it was a little shameful that she was being carried by a fifteen year old teenager she'd seen grow up from an eight year old. "Where...are you taking...me?" she asked. "I don't...have a room..."

"We're going to Yuki's room." He said shortly, and she felt his legs brush against her tucked ones as he ascended the stairs.

"That's only...cus...that's the only one...you know...off by heart...I bet." She joked, not even bothering to squirm now. She kept her eyes shut, but was sure that he was smiling at her remark. When she felt her body hit soft ground she snapped her eyes open. Finally, freed from the arms of Hatsuharu, she sat up and raised a hand to her face. "Stupid...bodily...urges...damn water...ugh..." She looked through her fingers and was surprised to see Hatsuharu still stood over her with a slightly worried expression. "Y'know, you can sit down...I don't bite...especially not...in this state."

He didn't reply with anything, just shrugged lightly and sat down on the bed next to her, his eyes still on her. Tamiko continued to watch him through her fingers, and couldn't help feeling like he was searching for something by looking at her. His eyes skimmed across her features again and again as though he was trying to get some information that her skin was hiding from him; she noticed he particularly focused on the unscarred parts f her face, which intrigued her. Usually that was _all_ that was looked at with everyone else.

When he hadn't spoken for a good ten minutes, she cleared her throat. "Why are you still here? You heard Hatori, I'm only dehydrated. He'll give me a few of his magic pills and I'll be fine."

Hatsuharu raised an eyebrow. "You don't enjoy the simple pleasures of company?"

She paused before answering. "I did." That was true; she _had_, but now she wasn't so sure. Her trust in people wasn't as solid as it had been before, and it was going to take a fair amount of time for it to return to her. It was the worst of her scars because it couldn't be healed or accepted by her as much as they had been. They were a part of her body, but this was part of her very being.

He seemed to accept her answer without much comment, which she was grateful for, but he asked another in place of the questioning. "Why now?"

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Why now have you come back? You could have come back at any time, so why not?"

Again, she weighed her answer before responding. "Because I didn't think people would forget me if I came back any earlier than ten years. I wanted you to forget me." She offered him a weak smile, moving her hand from her face now, "Obviously I was thinking too lowly of you. None of you truly forgot about me. Yuki needed reminding, but Kyo recognised me immediately and so did you. Seems I'm hopeless at doing even that."

"Well, we wouldn't have wanted to forget you." She frowned at his words. "You were the only adult who treated us properly, except a few of our parents. And you were so good to us, you helped us more than I think you know. I know that I didn't want to forget you, at least."

She smirked. "Damn me for being so nice."

He smiled back. "Damn you."

They were interrupted by the door opening and Hatori walking in. He stared between both of them, and cleared his throat. Tamiko made sure she made no eye contact with him out of stubbornness.  
"I'd appreciate it, Haru, if you left Tamiko and I alone for a little while. I need to stop being _Dr. Sohma _and she needs to stop being _Miss Kasai_, apparently."

Hatsuharu shrugged again carelessly. "She never was a _Miss Kasai_." All the same, he rose from his space and left the room, shutting the door with a 'click' behind him.

There was an awkward silence cast between them for a while, and this time Tamiko refused to be the first to break it. A soft breeze was blowing in from the open window, no doubt left from the morning to let the warming air through, and it blew through her cropped hair to make it sweep in front of her eyes for a second, obscuring her view of Hatori. Her stubborn lips stayed firmly shut, unrelenting in their mission to keep her words contained behind them as she dragged her sight up to rest on his face. The mask was still there, still not dropped even when they were alone, and it made her more irritated than ever. But she still kept those biting remarks contained behind her lips. No. He was going to speak first. She was going to make sure of it. He wanted to be that strong, silent type persona that so many women yearned for and lusted after? Then he would have a strong, silent-type girl to deal with, if that was the case. She was a determined person, he should know that by now, and she was certainly not going to give in on this one. He was going to speak to her.  
Then, to her surprise, he did speak. "Tamiko, it has been a long time."

She looked at him properly, focusing on his features now and not looking straight through him as she'd been previously. "It has, yeah. I won't apologise for it being so long, 'cus it was what I'd planned. I was talking to Hatsuharu a minute ago about it. Seems I can't make you forget me as easily as I thought I could."

"You couldn't make anyone forget you." Hatori made a face that she could almost interpret as amusement. "You're a pretty hard person to forget, if I'm honest."

"Charming", she commented as he sat down on the bed, "I seem to be loved by everyone. I'm touched."

He didn't reply to that; instead, he handed her a small metallic packet. She took it and raised an eyebrow at him. "They're rehydration capsules. It'll help you regain the water you lost. Take them unless you want to dehydrate and swoon in such a girlish way like before."

She gave him a look of pure venom. "Don't even joke about things like that."

At another time he would have laughed, or at least cracked a smile at her reaction. Now he just stared at her. _The mask..._ "I forgot how much of a tease I was. Forgive me." He picked up a glass conveniently left on the side and held it out to her. "Here, fill it with water and take it."

She frowned at the glass and didn't let herself meet his eye. She couldn't help feeling disappointed with him for what he called his 'effort' at talking to her. She _knew_ he could do better than that, and it annoyed her that he felt that he had to hide away his feelings from her. It wasn't something she was used to. "I'll take it if you do something for me." She said firmly.

He paused. "What?"

"Drop your acts you've heaved upon yourself and just talk. Or have you lost the ability to do that from being with Akito for too long?" she retorted. She couldn't help noticing that she'd got more and more snappy towards the end of her reply, and felt a little ashamed at having done so.

He, again, paused, then heaved a soft sigh. "Tamiko. I have nothing to talk about to you. Everything has been done. You can't ask me to talk about the past. I have no desire to speak with you about that."

"I don't want to talk about that either! That didn't _hurt_ you as much as it hurt me, and you know that!" she let out a growl of irritation and massaged her temples, tearing her gaze away from him. "I just want you to talk to me about anything, anything stupid or irrelevant just because you want to be around me. Evidently you don't. Shigure was wrong to bring you here under falsities. I know you didn't expect me to be here. Who told you I was back, Momiji or Hatsuharu?"

He fell silent. "How did you know it was one of them?"

"Instinct." She smiled without looking back at him. "Hatsuharu was pleased I was back. And Momiji practically begged me to tell him the stories again."

"Oh, the famous stories." His mouth twitched again, something she was becoming used to. "I remember those."

"You always thought it was stupid that I told them so many times. I bet you got sick of 'em." She said with a fond smile. "But you never really complained."

"Because I didn't get sick of them. I didn't mind you telling them, the reactions from the others were just as good as the stories."

She looked back at him quizzically. "You didn't mind?"

He shook his head. "If I minded, I wouldn't have been there would I?"

She stared at him for a few minutes, completely silenced by his words. She wasn't sure how she should react to it, let alone what she should say in _return_. She knew she _should_ not really be bothered by it; she _should_ just shrug and think that it was nothing for him to say that, but she actually felt a little sense of accomplishment.

As though he sensed her feelings and not wanting to give her too much hope, Hatori rose from his seat beside her and motioned to the glass as he set it down once again on the side. "Take the tablets with water. Twice a day, if you can stomach it. You should feel better in a matter of hours, your food poisoning's not a serious case so you should be fine." And with that, he promptly left her, with a final mutter of, "And get some sleep."

She was left sat in a room that wasn't hers with a stomach that felt like it was on a spin cycle holding a tablet in one hand like it was her lifeline. And she tried to remember when she'd felt like this before.


	7. Night wishes

**Author's note: Hey all! Just wanted to put across a few things here. Firstly, the italics are part of a flashback/memory of Tamiko's. She has them a lot, but they're good, so bear with them xD Also, some of the dialogue she uses has given her away, but she has an american accent. Not a very strong one, but it's American all the same. And thirdly, I know she's very 'close' to a lot of them, but rest assured she isn't just going around attempting to bed-hop x3 She feels very strongly about the entire Sohma family, and is very protective of them. She and Kyo especially have a pretty strong bond. Okay, that's all, hope you like this next chapter! Took me a while to write, hopefully the next one won't take quite so long! ^^;**

* * *

"_How are you feeling, any better?"  
_

_"I feel like my stomach's gone on a rollercoaster without me."  
_

_The gangly teenager laughed at her snide remark and sat down next to her on the bed. "You nearly fainted. I didn't realise you were so dainty."  
_

_"Hey, don't call me dainty or I'll break your arm." She replied, a playful smirk on her face as she issued the threat to him. "I pushed myself too hard again, sorry for trying too hard."  
_

_"Well, if it's going to get you ill then maybe you should calm down a bit." He advised, reaching out a hand to her. She flinched out of habit as she spotted his motion and he withdrew it, hurt. "Hey, it's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."  
_

_She blinked at him. He was handling her as though she was a cornered wild animal, with caution and tenderness. At least someone understood. She did feel like a wild animal, trapped and contained by anyone she met. Her parents, Akira, Akito... but Hatori didn't. Which was one of the reasons why she had started hanging around with him at high school. "The doctor's touch runs in the family, does it?" she asked, her weak smirk pulling over her obvious sense of awkwardness. Her gaze moved downwards. "What does this pill do, knock me out?"  
_

_"No. It'll stop your stomach turning quite so much. Go on, take it." He pressed, placing a glass of water in her free hand.  
_

_She looked at her reflection twirling and distorting in the water's depths, and as she did so she asked in a quieter voice than before, "Why are you helping me, Hatori? I'm not a Sohma, I'm a Kasai. And Akito isn't my number one fan either."  
_

_"I like to help people. And you aren't only always around, you also go to school with me. So, keeping on the good side of the only other sane person besides me I reckoned was a good idea." He looked at the glass with her, and half-smiled as he saw their images merge for a little while, before separating again as he moved away. "Take it, please, I'm not poisoning you."  
_

_She gave him an unimpressed look and put the pill in her mouth, and with a swig of water it was gone. She groaned quietly. She hated taking pills; she'd never been able to manage it when she was younger, either. "There, happy?" she grumbled, folding her arms like a child with the glass still clutched in one hand.  
_

_He smiled, and she saw happiness, genuine happiness, something that she'd never known and it made her smile too. "Yes, I'm happy." She sighed lightly and jumped as she felt his hand on her back, rubbing it soothingly like a mother would to a child. It felt good. "See, being touched isn't so bad is it?" he said with the same smile on his face. She couldn't help agreeing with him. It really was soothing. It wasn't a miracle worker, however; her stomach was still churning, but her attention was more fixed on that so it didn't seem so much of a big deal as it had been before. But the churning slowly ebbed away, ebbed until it was almost gone. She closed her eyes gently, her lids flickering rapidly at the lightness of their closing. _

_"You really do have the doctor's touch." She said, a smirk weaving its way onto her face.  
_

_"I think it's more the pill that's making it feel better. But thank you."  
_

_"Nah, not just the pill. It's you too." She opened her eyes then and shuffled closer to him, placing a small hand on his chest. "You make me feel better."He gave no answer to her comment, and at first she thought with a sinking horror he'd got totally the wrong idea. But then she felt his arms wrap around her, and then the warmth, and the safety she felt as she cuddled into him. It felt so right, so comforting, so __**there**__ that it made her want to cry. Someone cared. Someone really cared...  
_

_"Tamiko." He said softly into her ear, keeping her close. "Tamiko...Tamiko..."_

"Tamiko? Tamiko?"

"Nhn?" Her eyes snapped open, and she saw Yuki staring down at her a little bashfully. She blinked three times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating, and then shot upright. "Oh crap, sorry!" She fell asleep! How could she have fallen asleep, when she'd felt so awful?! She should've known that it had been a dream, all of it. She ran a hand through her hair and frowned, sensing her hand was still clenched into a fist. She opened it to reveal the pill Hatori had given her. She groaned aloud and as if to remind her, her stomach overturned angrily at her noise. "I thought I'd taken it." She said dryly, her voice uncharacteristically small and meek.

"Hatori told you to." Yuki pointed out. "Are you okay, really?"

She frowned at him. "Yeah, right as rain, why do you ask?"

"Because we could hear you talking from downstairs. We thought there was someone up here you were talking to, but...you were just dreaming..."

Tamiko felt herself turning bright red and she cringed. She'd been _talking_ in her sleep too?! That was even worse! What the heck had she'd been saying?! She didn't want to know actually, no, she didn't, she didn't want to get even more embarrassed. She thought she'd grown out of that (the irony of that made her laugh- she hadn't grown in years) in the years she'd lived. Granted, she didn't think it had totally gone, but she hadn't thought it was still lurking in the depths of her mind waiting to come out and scream her innermost thoughts to the world. But instead of clamming up or shouting angrily, she said rather calmly, "I was loud, huh?"

Yuki nodded. "A little." He paused and looked out of the room. "Ah, no offense, but could you move? I need to go to bed now."

Tamiko nodded and stood up from the bed, casting her eyes over to the clock on his desk. She blinked. "It's nine o clock."

"Yes?"

"You go to bed at nine o clock?"

"Yes...?"

She shook her head sadly. "Teenagers today, they don't know the sense of being a teenager anymore."

"Well excuse me if I want to have a good night's sleep and get good grades." Yuki answered, but he said it in such a way it didn't seem snappy. It seemed merely mirthful to her. "And besides, you still are a teenager...technically."

"Soul of an old maid, Yuki, soul of an old maid." She corrected, a smile forming on her lips despite her still furiously blushing face. She tucked the pill into the pocket of her jeans and moved towards the door. "Oh", she said, turning back. "Are any of the others still here?"

He shook his head. "Not that I know of. Hatori took Momiji and Haru home after he saw to you. I think he wanted you to get some peace and quiet, though why he didn't take the stupid _**cat**_ too in that case I have no idea."

"You shouldn't be so harsh to Kyo. You all have had harsh lives; all of you have problems of your own. I even remember at one point you telling me you wanted to be _friends_ with the 'damn cat'. Was that so long ago for you?"

Yuki fell silent and didn't say any more. Tamiko knew she had shamed him, and she couldn't help feeling a little bad. So she swept a dainty finger along his cheek and underneath his jaw, tilting his head up slightly to make him look at her.

"I don't blame you for changing your attitude towards him. It's not as though Kyo did himself any favours to befriend you. You are both to blame. Don't beat yourself up about it." She offered him a small smile. "Go on, sleep. I've deprived you of it for long enough, grade-earner."

He smiled back and brushed his chin away from her fingertip. "Where will you sleep?" he asked as he wandered over to his bed.

Tamiko shrugged. "Where I fall, I guess."

Yuki frowned. "You really mean that?"

"Yeah, I tend to be a very heavy sleeper. I'd fall asleep anywhere if habit let me." She really did walk out of the room then, leaving Yuki to get ready for bed and have a dreamless sleep. As she wandered down the stairs, she let her thoughts reel around her head, almost copying the spin-cycle hat was going on in her stomach. Ten years, ten years had gone by and still there were things the remained the same. The Rat and Cat's natural hatred of each other, the perverted thoughts of Shigure...then things had changed. The masks they all wore, because that's what they had, masks. Hatori's was more visible and obvious to her, but every one of the Sohma family she'd met again had a front. They all had things they weren't telling her. Not completely. And it made her feel a little bit guilty. Maybe leaving had been a bad idea. Akito may have forced her, but she could have gone against his wishes and stayed in touch with the Sohmas she knew. But she hadn't-she'd stuck her head in the head and hoped the problem would go away. But it hadn't, it had just manifested inside her, until she'd had no choice but to come back, to make sure they were all alright. If they hadn't, she would never have been able to forgive herself for abandoning them to such a fate. As she thought, she wasn't looking where she was going and almost collided with a very flustered-looking Tohru going the opposite way.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know you were awake, well, I didn't know you were asleep until Shigure told me, oh but did you want me to wake you up, did you not want to sleep, oh I'm sorr-"

"Save it." Tamiko put a hand on Tohru's mouth in attempt to stop her overflow of vocabulary. "It's okay, I shouldn't have fallen asleep up there. Blame Hatsuharu for putting me on a bed." She raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing rushing around at this hour? Shouldn't you be in bed too?"

"Oh, no I still have some chores to finish up." The other teenager said brightly, something Tamiko didn't really link with the word 'chores'.

"Look, but you're tired, right?" She didn't need Tohru to lie to see that the other girl looked exhausted. She may have been able to fool an idiot like Shigure, but not Tamiko. "I can do your chores for you. I don't exactly have a school to go to or anything tomorrow, so I can catch up on my sleep then."

Tohru looked at her as though she'd suggested committing a murder. "Oh no, I couldn't possibly make a guest do the housework! I'm the housekeeper, it's my job to make this place look nice!"

"Tohru." Tamiko said pointedly, putting both hands on the younger girl's shoulders. "_Sleep._ I'll do what needs to be done as quietly as I can, okay?"

Tohru, in the end, reluctantly agreed with her. "The laundry needs colour sorting and the washing up needs doing. But please, don't exert yourself! If you feel tired when you're working, don't hesitate to go to sleep and let me finish it in the morning! I don't mind!"

"Tohru, it's _fine_. Go to bed now, or I'll drag you there kicking and screaming and lock the door." Tamiko joked, patting her on the shoulders lightly.

Tohru nodded. "O-okay." She descended the stairs a little slower than before, as though she'd let her little act slip and allowed herself to look tired, finally. As she reached her door, she looked back down the hallway. Tamiko had already gone. She smiled tiredly and shut the door to her room, thankful for a good night's sleep.

"Right, laundry and washing up, got it." Tamiko muttered to herself. She investigated every room downstairs until she found the washroom, and the massive pile of clothes left in the seemingly-bottomless pit that was the washing basket. "Aw man." She said grumpily. She seriously regretted agreeing to do this for Tohru now. Nonetheless, a promise was a promise. Dropping to her knees, she began to rifle through the shirts, trousers, dresses of Tohru's and occasionally (with disgust) underwear of the boy's. "Ugh, and they let Tohru do this? I bet Shigure plants more than usual of his as some sick form of harassment." She said scathingly, dropping the eighth pair of boxers she assumed were owned by him. "Gross." She commented, wrinkling her nose as she sorted them into colours; darks, whites, bright colours and 'delicates'. Once she'd finished the majority of the pile, she rocked back on her heels and admired her handiwork. "If any of them saw me now, they'd be shocked to hell and back." She muttered to herself, picking up some more clothing to sort. It was true, they would, particularly Shigure; she remembered telling him, along with Ayame and Hatori, that she would never become a housewife, or a wife for that matter. Any other girl and they'd have scoffed at her. But it was _her_, and they took her very seriously. She wouldn't hear the end of it if any of them walked in now...

"What are you doing?"

She froze, rumbled. Oh crap. She spun around and glared at Kyo, who was stood in the doorway. "What does it look like, dumbass?"

He raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. His gaze angled downwards. "It looks like you're looking through our clothes. God, you're not a pervert like Shigure now, are you?"

"Shut up, it's not like that!" she ranted, standing up fully. "Tohru Honda was exhausted so I told her to go to bed and let me do her chores for her. I had to sort the clothes and do the washing up, how is that perverted?!"

"You do have a pair of my underwear in your hand." Kyo said, turning a little red as he said it.

"Hmm?" She looked down at the garment in her hand. "Eew, gross!" she dropped it on the 'delicates' pile as though it had bitten her. "That's just wrong, I shouldn't be doing this! I just promised Tohru I would!" she cringed as she looked around her. "Now what do I do?" she asked herself, but it was Kyo who answered for her.

"How the hell do I know, I don't do it around here. But, when I've seen Tohru do it she puts them in a load at a time."

She turned and smirked. "You watch Miss Honda?"

"What the-? That's not what I meant, at all! I just walk past and see her doing it, okay?!"

She shrugged, a cynical smile on her face. "Whatever. Mind helping me out, seeing as you're obviously not going to bed?"

Kyo looked around him, as though mortified someone might see him. That made her laugh. "Oh Kyo, you idiot, no one's going to see you be a good person. Come and help a senpai, will ya?"  
Her words seemed to reassure him, for he was by her side in moments, sorting through the clothes with her silently. She hazarded a look at him and thought for a second that he was awkward at doing something like this. They worked quietly, neither saying much to the other, except the occasional noise of disgust when they found something they didn't count on finding. When Kyo had picked up some underwear of Tohru's he'd turned redder than a stop light and had chucked them down onto the correct pile as though they were burning his hand. Tamiko raised an eyebrow but said nothing, merely gave out a low chuckle that she was sure Kyo hadn't caught.

Soon, they were finished, and she sat straighter, pressing a hand to the small of her back with a grunt. "Jeez, I'm gonna feel this in the morning."

"You're such a wuss." Kyo commented, a small smirk on his face.

She turned to look at him, and blinked twice. Kyo had a kind of radiance shining from his features and expression, and she was sure she'd never seen that with him before. As a child, he'd been happy, sure, having Kazuma as your foster father would do that for a kid, but not _truly _happy. Yet she stared at him now, and she knew he was. "That Honda girl's like your own little medicine, isn't she little Ume?" she said with a knowing smile.

She noticed that his colour rose even more, something she didn't realise could have been accomplished. "Wh-what?! Shut up, it's not like that! You don't know anything!" he snapped.

"Oh really?" She kept the knowing smile on her face, leaning back on her palms and watching him. "Then why do you blush even more when I mention her?"

"I do not!"

"Yeah, you do." She smirked now. She was enjoying this.

"I do not! Stop poking your nose into things that don't concern you!"

She quietened and lowered her head, the smile still on her face. "You have a point. But you know me, Kyo. I'm not one to stand on sidelines. And I can tell you like this Honda girl." Before he could deny it, she ploughed on, "And I think it's brilliant. The cat, in love, it's a beautiful thing. I've never seen you looking so content with the world as you are now. And I respect that greatly. As a matter of fact, I envy you, little Ume."

"You do? Why?" He demanded, his defensive wall still built around him.

Tamiko shrugged, and took his face in one slender hand of hers. Kyo did nothing except stare at her with wide, slightly terrified eyes as she leaned in close to him; for a horrifying moment, he was sure she was going to kiss him. Tamiko however, knew exactly what she was doing. "I envy you because you're someone who's the least likely person to fall in love, and you've managed it. And I thought I would be more likely to be with someone when you found love, Kyo. The tables have turned. Now I feel like the novice at this game." With that, she released him from her grip and stood up. "Now, I'm going to do the washing up. You can help, or you can go. It's your choice." She turned and left the room quickly.

Kyo was on his feet in seconds. "What the hell are you doing?! What was that about, why did you do that, you're such an idiot!" he yelled, chasing after her. He didn't need to go far; Tamiko hadn't exactly sprinted away, and was barely half down the hallway when he caught her up.

She sensed him coming however and spun around, catching him off guard. "Don't push me, little Ume, or you will regret it." She said. There was a trace of anger in there, and Kyo knew better than to provoke her any more.

"I don't get it. Why do you make me feel so edgy all the time? You never did that before."

She smirked weakly. "You noticed that, huh?" When he didn't reply except with a stare, she closed her eyes and sighed. "Something happened. Something long ago. And I only just realised what it was. It's been lying dormant. But you can sense it. Its your true form calling out for its buddy."

Kyo's eyes widened. "Tamiko...you haven't...mimicked..."

"Not yours." She cut in. "No, not yours. But it's hidden, it's secret. That's why your true form can feel it. And it makes you nervous. Truthfully, I thought it would scare the hell out of you. But that was just my opinion." She shrugged. "Still, I can't do anything about it. I better just live with it. I have so far." She moved away from him and lowered her head, regarding him with soft eyes. "Go to bed. Sleep it off. You don't need to go fretting about the issues of a never-aging Mimicker, little Ume. Go on, go sleep."

Kyo hesitated. "Do you...want help with the washing up?"

"I'll be fine, I can handle a sink full of plates and cups, Kyo. Go on." When he reluctantly turned and headed back towards the stairs, Tamiko sighed out lightly and made her way into the kitchen. Setting a glass under the tap, she looked out of the window at the sky. The stars were patterning the sky tonight, each one gleaming brightly and cheerfully. The moon was absent from where she was looking; she presumed it was on the other side, watching her back. "New moon, or it is hidden I wonder?" she asked aloud. She brought the tablet out of her pocket and placed it on the tip of her tongue. Picking up the now full glass, she drank long, meaningful gulps. _  
_

_"There, happy?"  
_

_"Yes, I'm happy."  
_

She put the glass back down on the side and opened her eyes tentatively. All gone. The tablet was swallowed. The voices, one her own and one Hatori's, still drifted through her head as though they'd been said yesterday. She closed her eyes again and willed for the memory to come to her again.


	8. Nightmares and school preparations

**A/N: Yaay, some Haru-centric stuff! I really enjoy writing in his point of view. I'm also thinking of maybe sticking some chapters together once this gets further on ahead, seeing as we're on chapter eight already and nothing considerably central to the main plot has happened yet xD Bear with me, it will start happening soon! So yeah, if chapters start to cut down, don't panic! **

* * *

The morning light streamed through the windows of one of the many Sohma houses, the sun's rays casting its beams across the creased and crumpled bed sheets it found there. They came in bright stripes, cutting through the shadow and darkness that seemed to occupy the room; highlighting a row of books stood like proud soldiers along a desk, the clothes strewn across the wooden flooring of the room, the clock by the bedside suddenly beginning its noisy assault upon its sleeper's ears. Not that it needed to do anything of the sort.  
The boy shot up from the pillow his head had been resting on and sat bolt upright in his bed, his grey eyes wide and shocked. _A nightmare?_

Flopping back down onto the bed, causing it to creak in protest, Hatsuharu sighed out gently, trying his best to calm his racing heart by staring at his ceiling. God, some nightmare. He hadn't had nightmares in years, well, not proper ones anyway. Usually they consisted of him stood in the middle of a circle with the other members of the zodiac laughing and pointing at him, cursing and insulting the 'dumb ox' who had been tricked by the rat. Even Yuki, his precious Yuki, was there, a smirk on his face that rivalled even Akito's as he would say _"You didn't really think I liked you, did you Haru? Man, you're dumber than they all say."_ He shuddered, bringing a hand up to rake through his now completely messed-up ivory hair.

That nightmare was bad enough; the one that had made him so bitter towards everyone when he was a child, the one that before Yuki had healed that anger of his could make him turn Black just thinking about it. But this one had been far worse. He wasn't usually one to be frightened by nightmares, but this one had considerably startled him. It had started off like a usual, random dream he usually had, with lots of incoherent, flashing pictures and images that didn't seem to link at all to each other. But then, it had unfolded as though he was watching from a cinema screen, minus the popcorn. He had been stood on the school playing field, drifting off as he usually did, with his friends around him; Yuki, Kyo, Momiji...Rin...and then they'd all caught sight of smoke in the far corner of the field. Concerned, Hatsuharu had ran towards it amid the pleas from his friends to stay where he was, and once he'd reached it (with surprising inhuman speed that you seemed to get in dreams) he came to the origins of a fire. More than that, an inferno. The flames however, instead of the usual hot colours, were purple shades, and licked and spat at the air as they crackled. And, Hatsuharu had noted, there had been no wood that they were burning from. It was just coming up from the earth itself, as though it was its way of crying. And in the middle, right in the middle, barely visible for the flames, was a horse. It stood squarely, looking him deep in the eye with an anger no one could not be afraid of, and it suddenly reared, its teeth bared and its ears flat back against its forehead. And then it began to contort, change shape into something else, something reptilian, something _unnatural..._

At first, he had thought the nightmare was about Rin. But then he knew, once he saw the animal change, that it was about the Mimicker. Tamiko. Something was going to happen to Tamiko, and he didn't like the message he was being given. He was one of those who believed that dreams were the foresight of things yet to come, and as he thought of that blue roan horse being covered in the flames as though they were dressing it made him cringe.

He moved his hand from his hair and instead laid it on his clammy forehead. It felt cold as hell, though his pulse was roaring. He usually made any excuse to stay out of the school gates, but he knew he couldn't feign sickness to his mother. She sometimes didn't care, but she was in the frame of mind lately that she had to become a 'good' parent, which meant rules around the household had been considerably tighter. Tossing the covers from his body he half-rolled out of the bed and straightened up with a soft grunt, his mind still reeling from the nightmare. He dressed slowly and silently, not even bothering to call down to his parents to inform them he was awake. He was certain the longer he was awake the less strong the nightmare would be, but he found himself wishing it would stay the same. He looked at himself in the mirror and sighed.

His hair was still messed up. Damn. He'd have to sort that out before he got to school.

Meanwhile, Shigure's house was alive with noise.

"Oh no, I think I've lost my English book!" Tohru panicked, rushing around the house like a miniature whirlwind in desperate search of her class book.

"You had it on your desk, remember?" Kyo said waspishly. He wasn't usually this bad in the mornings, but he'd been turning over what Tamiko had told him in his head all night which as a result had left him more clueless than ever. It pissed him off. "It can't have just grown legs and ran away."

"Ah, you doubt the hiding powers of books, Kyo." Shigure cut in, sidling through the two teenagers to reach the table and the leftovers from breakfast it still held. "Scraps always taste great." He said to himself.

"That's because you're a stupid mongrel dog who would turn into his form forever if you could." Came a drowsy, insulting voice.

"Oh yes, Yuki's out and about. C'mon, _Squeaker, _up and at 'em." Shigure quipped.

Yuki's eyes narrowed as he entered the room dragging his feet, his hair still covering most of his face from his sleep the previous night. "Don't ever call me that again or I'll tear your arm off." He said in a voice that would have been threatening had he been fixing Shigure with the glare. Instead, he was slumped at the table with his head resting inches from a porridge bowl, and the voice was considerably muffled.

Shigure gave him a sneaky glance. "You don't complain when Miss Kasai calls you that."

That did it. Yuki was powerful when he was fully awake-when he was half-asleep, he was deadly. He struck out in Shigure's direction with a blow that not only landed squarely on his older cousin's cheek but the swiftness of it broke one of the bowls in two. The three stared at the bowl in shocked awe and fright, whist Yuki's head slumped back onto the table.

"You idiot, now look what you did!" Kyo yelled.

"Oh no, I'm going to have to get another bowl!"

"Oww, that hurt Yuki! Oh the rewards I get for letting you live in this house!"

"What the heck's going on in here?" All heads swivelled around to see Tamiko lounging lazily against the doorway, eyebrow raised. "You must be dropping atom bombs in here, it takes a great deal of talent to wake me up from anything." She yawned widely and dragged a hand back through her hair. "Did Squeaker break something?"

Shigure didn't say anything, but grinned triumphantly over at Yuki. His head didn't move from its place, neither did he make any move to suggest he'd heard her.

"Bless, he's still tired huh?" She pushed off the doorway and sidled over to them, smiling brightly. "Squeaker", she cooed in his ear. "C'mon, time to get up. A lovely school day is waiting for you. Another day of hormone-fuelled girls stalking and gossiping over you..."

"I don't think that'll help." Kyo replied with an unimpressed look in her direction. She pretended not to hear him. Yuki still didn't make much of a move from where he was, so Tamiko whispered, "Quick, or I bet Kyo will get to hold Miss Honda's hand."

"Damnit woman, do you have no sense of shutting up?!" Kyo yelled, his face turning a very tasteful shade of scarlet whilst Tohru blinked dizzily at him, completely unaware of the situation. Evidently she either hadn't heard Tamiko's whisper or she'd been in her own little world. Tamiko herself wasn't sure which one it was, but she was sure it was the latter.

Still, it had worked. Yuki's head groggily moved from its place and he raised it, blinking, to stare at her. "Don't be rude."

"I can be as rude as I like." She retorted, smiling nonetheless.

"Oh, you've perked up", Shigure noted. "Does that mean your little illness has ebbed?"

"Yep, I feel much better." Tamiko said, the smile becoming brighter as she ruffled Yuki's hair playfully amid his protests.

Shigure stared at her with a sort of smug smile across his lips, and Tamiko just stared back, confused. Then she realised. He thought she was feeling better because she'd seen Hatori. He'd been the one who'd set it up, after all. He hadn't told his cousin that it had been her, either; obviously he'd been plotting to match make. Well it wasn't going to happen, not in a million years. Then again, Shigure was foolish enough to think it would. "It was the tablet, 'Gure. Nothing else." She said coldly, her smile disappearing as quickly as it had came.

"Did I say anything?" he said innocently, but that increasingly irritating smile was still there. She rolled her eyes at him and tried her best to ignore him, but the fact that he kept his innocent gaze on her made her a little edgy.

"You're feeling better! Oh, that's great news!" Tohru said happily, putting her hands together in her evident glee.

"Yeah, you say that now, but just you wait." Kyo replied bluntly. "She eats like a horse. More than Shigure."

Tohru froze. "O-oh dear..."

Tamiko glared at Kyo, her good mood completely forgotten now. "You shut up! It's a precaution in case I have to starve the next day!"

Tohru looked sincerely like she was believing her, but Kyo just scoffed. "Yeah, whatever. Since when would you have to starve in this house?"

"I said it's a precaution! Besides, you're late for school!"

"Late?!" Tohru broke in, panic filling her face as she sped out of the room faster than a jet. "I haven't got ready yet! Oh no I still haven't found my book, where could it have got to?"

Tamiko watched her rush with calm eyes. "You do realise your book is in the kitchen on the floor, right? It probably fell out of your bag when you were rushing around like a whirlwind."

The other girl whipped back into the room, her hair put up in a way so careful that it would surely have taken her far longer than it had. "Oh thank you!" she cried, whizzing away into the kitchen.

Tamiko tutted and turned her gazes back to the boys. She smiled. They both looked so grown up. Their uniforms were ink black with white trim, and as far as she could remember the uniform hadn't changed in the years since she'd been a student there with Shigure, Ayame and Hatori. It really showed how much they'd grown; from small, round-eyed young boys, they now dwarfed her in height, and she couldn't help feeling a little disappointed at that. When someone you'd known as a child was taller than you and looked like an adult, it was a little saddening. It was like she was their mother, that she'd have to let them go and fly the nest...she guessed her stories would be pretty useless to them now. Yuki still contained his child-like features, like those large expression-filled eyes, but Kyo was different. It was as like a totally different person was stood before her now, someone confident in himself and maybe not truly happy, but he was on the way to becoming so. She smiled softly at the two of them.

"Er...Miss Kasai, are you okay? You're staring...is there something wrong?" Yuki asked, looking concernedly in her direction.

Tamiko's eyes came back into focus. "Hmm? Oh." She shook her head. "No, nothing's wrong. I was just thinking about the way you two are turning into men so fast."

Yuki looked at Kyo a little awkwardly. "Er..."

"Forget it. You just look sweet in your uniforms, that's all." She winked playfully, all traces of sincerity gone, and Kyo, as predicted, flared up.

"I do not look sweet! I don't have a choice in wearing this, y'know!"

Tamiko looked him up and down. "So is that why you don't like wearing a tie?"

"I...don't like anything around my neck. I feel constricted. I mean, look at you! Look what you have on all the time!"

Tamiko looked blank and brought a hand up to her throat. Her fingers skimmed across a shined metal and she sighed out. Oh, yeah. "It doesn't mean I like being constricted and constrained if I'm wearing it around my neck, Kyo." She muttered thoughtfully. How had she forgotten about it? She supposed it was just like wearing a ring; after a while, your body gets used to the feel of the silver against your skin so it ignores it. You can't feel that it's there. Her choker she wore all the time, she never took it off. That was why she'd forgotten. It was black fabric tied around her throat, and she was even unsure if there was an actual end to it where it had been tied. The metal she'd touched was the padlock. At one point it had been anything but decorative, so it was the usual size and weight of a security one. Not that it truly bothered her; she carried her head high anyway, so the weight hadn't really hindered anything she did as such. She couldn't ever remember _not_ having it around her neck; it was like a birthmark to her, something she was so used to having that it was like an intricate part of her, in some messed-up way. "And", she added truthfully, "I didn't realise it was there."

Kyo and Yuki looked at her. "Man, you're stupid." Kyo scorned, moving away to pick up his schoolbag. End of conversation, Tamiko thought with a smile. "Tohru, c'mon, we really will be late in a minute!"

"Coming, coming!" The girl was soon by his side, looking a little flushed but otherwise okay.

"You shouldn't rush her Kyo, she will be ready when she is...ready." Yuki said softly, picking up his own school bag.

"If we waited for her hell would be frozen over by the time we got to school!" Kyo snapped, earning a hard whack from an incredibly disgruntled Yuki.

"Have fun, you three." Shigure called brightly from behind the newspaper he had now picked up and was skimming through carelessly.

He got barely more than a grunt from the boys, but Tohru turned and waved brightly. "Goodbye! Be safe!"

"And you." Tamiko replied. "Goodbye, boys." To her surprise, she got two separate farewells from them and couldn't help feeling pleased with herself.

Once the door slid to and only she and Shigure remained in the house, Shigure folded down a corner of his paper. "So, are you going to tell me the real reason you feel better?"

She sat down at the table with an 'oof' and raised an eyebrow at him. "I told you. It was the tablet. The miracle of medicine, I have you know, actually helps people."

He shook his head. "Ah Tamiko, you are in such denial. All you need is a garden full of Hatori-shaped statues and the muses singing about how much you do really like him!" he sighed happily, as though recounting some lovely memory.

"That's a Hercules scene and quit hassling me before you get it in the kisser."

He leaned closer to her. "It would be like such a little fairytale."

"Go away Dog, you really will get it in the kisser." Tamiko pulled a bowl of half-eaten porridge towards her with her glare still directed at Shigure. "Besides, I don't need a fairytale. I'm perfectly happy as I am."

Shigure sighed dramatically. "Oh, such denial." She ignored him and began to eat the remains of the three teenager's breakfast, so he added in a slightly more sober tone, "Seriously though, that tablet only settled your stomach. What else was it, hmm?"

She paused in her eating, the spoon halfway to her mouth. She set it down lightly on the table with the porridge still in it and said, "Yeah, well, I think I feel appreciated at the moment. Hatsuharu and Momiji came to see me with Hatori. And when Hatsuharu took me up to Yuki's room, he said some really sweet things and it just made me realise that I'm not as useless as Akito made me out to be."

"Well, that was something obvious. You're not useless, you just don't know how to use your talent yet. That's not something to tear yourself up over. Everyone feels that way, it takes a lot of time and patience to find out your purpose."

"Yeah, my purpose was to be Akito's lap-dog." She picked up her spoon again. "And don't deny it, because everyone knew that was what I was meant to be."

"True, true." Shigure watched her raise the spoon to her lips for the second time. "But that wasn't what you let yourself become. You fought against it. So you have another purpose now."He flashed her a cheesy grin. "In my humble opinion, I think it's to be another pretty face in a house of stinking men. Or being my own personal maid. I like the last one, don't you?"

Tamiko stared at him. "I was actually thinking you were being sensible until you spilled out that garbage."

"You know me."

"Pssh, yeah, I know you." She turned back to the food. A few more moments passed with Shigure 'reading' the newspaper (for Tamiko could tell he was only pretending to) before she cleared her throat and leaned back on her palms. "Shigure, how young do I look?"

It was obvious she'd taken him by surprise, for he blinked rapidly as he set the newspaper down. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, how young do I look?"

He surveyed her face for a while, his brown eyes warm and curious very much like his animal self. "I'd say you still look eighteen. Why?"

"Do you think I could pass for sixteen?"

Shigure's expression was replaced from one of confusion to that of cunning. "Ah, is Miss Kasai planning on trying to gatecrash a school?"

"Maybe." She smirked back at him. "I pretty much failed my senior year thanks to you clowns, so I could go back and restudy. I also wouldn't mind keeping an eye on the others."

"It's like they're your children." Shigure commented with amusement. He instantly knew he'd said the wrong thing, for Tamiko's face darkened instantly after the words had come spilling from his mouth.

"I just care an awful lot for them. I know I haven't been there for them these past few years, so I wanna be there now." She rose from her seat. "Where could I get a uniform from?"

Shigure overcame his first fears of getting her angry and just grinned slyly. "What?" she said, blinking at him. "...What?"

"Oh, I know where you can get a uniform from..." Shigure said with a wry chuckle, and Tamiko's stomach tumble-turned, but she knew that it was nothing to do with any food poisoning relapse.


	9. Uniform Issues

**A/N: Another...well, partly Haru-centric chapter! I suppose I should warn you that there's strong language in this bit too, so watch out :P**

**Also, I feel this story's going to go on for a long time...it's chapter 9 and I haven't even got _into_ the more interesting juicy stuff! This is very fun to write though, so there's betting I'll finish it eventually. So, enjoy and feel free to review, I love hearing from you all! 3**

"Isn't it a lovely day? The sun's out and the birds are singing! I thought it was going to rain today, too!" the small blonde smiled brightly up at his taller companion, his usual good mood practically shining through from his face.

Hatsuharu just nodded and tucked his hands into the pockets of his black uniform. He didn't feel like talking much today, even though he would probably catch the rabbit's contagious happiness. The nightmare, however diluted from his being awake, was still there whirling around his mind as if it were on spin cycle. It was bugging him like a gnat. He'd have to see Tamiko again, to warn her about it. Then again, the Mimicker would probably scoff at his petty excuse of a warning and think he was even more like a child than she already thought. Though…she had said how mature he was… but all the same, he couldn't imagine her being the type to take dreams and nightmares seriously. Knowing her if she had a nightmare, she probably woke up and shrugged it off. It was just how she was. Despite this, he was still a little concerned. He made a mental note to catch either Yuki or Kyo in the corridors (preferably Yuki seeing as how famously he got along with the cat) and ask if he could go round theirs, even for a little while. Tamiko wouldn't exactly go anywhere; she had nowhere to go. And if she went to the main house then she was stupid.

"Haru?" Momiji looked a little worried, his face falling at his friend's neutral expression. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Uh?" He shook himself like a dog ridding itself of water and shrugged carelessly at his friend's question. "I'm fine. Just not had much of a good night's sleep, that's all."

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Not particularly." He cast his eyes down at Momiji, who still looked worried. "Don't worry about me, I'm just a little tired. And also", he looked up at the sky with a sigh, "I wanted it to rain today."

"You…wanted it to rain?" Momiji laughed. "Why did you want it to rain?"

He didn't answer, just shrugged again. In all honesty, he wanted it to rain because he liked it. He was one of the few people who did. When the others would practically trip over each other in their haste to get sheltered from a downpour, he was content to stand in it for hours, even though he usually always got a cold as a result. He always thought of it as refreshing, though when he voiced this he would have a few 'you're such a freak' looks in return. Maybe he was a freak. It would be a change from being called dumb or stupid.

He stopped at the sight of three figures making their way towards them- or at least, they were travelling in the same direction as them. He could easily identify them as the fireball Kyo and the perfect Yuki, the girl in the middle being the pretty and intelligent Miss Honda. He didn't react when Momiji, spotting them too, rushed from his side like a bullet from a gun towards the trio, namely Tohru, and leaving him in the dust. He was too mentally drained from the nightmare to make much of an effort, even if it was Yuki. Or at least, that was what he kept telling himself. He just meandered slowly over and watched as Momiji swung from Tohru's neck like a grinning monkey with a cocked eyebrow and without much comment.

"Hello, Haru." Yuki greeted hesitantly, as though he was anticipating Hatsuharu's welcome. Well, Hatsuharu thought to himself, he wasn't going to disappoint.

Though instead of tugging at his clothing, which was his usual greeting, he did something else entirely. He engulfed the older boy in his arms with a soft and affectionate mumble of "Yuki", laying his head on his shoulder. "It has been too long." He added in a husky voice.

"Haru, it was a day ago since you last saw me. Please let go, you're constricting me." Yuki complained, wriggling free of his younger cousin's grip.

Hatsuharu reluctantly removed his arms from around Yuki. "Shall we walk to school together?"

"We already are." Yuki pointed out, stepping out of Hatsuharu's hugging range.

The ox said nothing in reply as the group set off in the direction of the steadily looming high school. A small amount of casual chatter was thrown around between them, mostly Tohru and Momiji being the ones who started them. Tohru was the one who brought Hatsuharu back down to earth. "So how have you been Hatsuharu?"

He blinked down at her, as though for a moment he'd forgotten his own name. "Huh?"

"Jeez Haru, you space out more than she does, and that's something!" Kyo snapped, rolling his eyes.

Hatsuharu ignored him. "I've been...okay."

"Was your weekend fun?"

"I've had better. It was pretty uneventful, 'til the Mimicker swanned in." He chanced a glance at her. "Speaking of her, how is your little visitor?"

He waited with baited breath, but he needn't have bothered. "Oh, Tamiko's good! She's feeling a lot better now, I think the tablet Hatori gave her worked, please thank him from her!"

Hatsuharu smiled. "No. Because I know Tamiko wouldn't thank him."

"Oh no, she's a nice person and very grateful! I'm sure she'd thank Hato-"

"You don't know her." He cut in, and to the other's shock there was an underlying coldness to his words.

"Haru, calm down. You can't turn Black on us now, we're almost at school." Yuki said soothingly, touching his shoulder lightly.

"I'm not turning Black, I'm just irritated. I know her."

Kyo snorted. "You sound like a sulky child. We all _know_ her, get over it."

Hatsuharu flinched as though Kyo had hit him. Maybe he was right- maybe he _was_ childish. But he couldn't help it; even when he was little, he had felt that he _**knew**_ Tamiko, really knew her, more than the others did. Yuki had been a favourite, he understood that, but he was sure that both he and Kyo were a close, tied second. But only he knew when she was upset or sad; like when her smiles were painful and her good-feeling was forced. Yeah, only he knew about that. He felt kinda special about that. The talent had stayed with age, too. He could tell when Yuki felt down or when Shigure was up to something he shouldn't. And when he'd seen her again. He knew that she was hurting, but she was too proud to show it.

The feeling stayed with him throughout the day, and as he sat in home room with his head resting lazily on the desk in front of him he was completely oblivious to the frantic tugging on his shoulder from Momiji. "What?" He finally said, raising his head.

"Come look, come look! There's a fight outside in the corridor! We should go stop them before they get in trouble!" the smaller boy cried, his eyes larger than dinner plates.

Hatsuharu shook his head and slunk it back down onto his desk. "It's their fight, let them be. It's not our place to intrude on their disagreement."

"But Haruuu." The rabbit whinged, "We _need_ to or one of them could get really hurt! What if one of them dies?!"

He sighed. Momiji needed to learn to calm down and not take things to the extreme. Although, he wouldn't get any peace from his cousin until he went and at least _looked_ at whatever was going on. So, with a shrug and a grunt as he heaved himself up from the chair, he wandered over to the door of home room. Huh. He should have known it was a big fight, seeing as all of his fellow pupils had vacated their classrooms to watch intently. "What's going on then?" he stated boredly, folding his arms and staring the people in front of him down.

He didn't need anyone to tell him. He soon found out.

"...dare speak to me like that again you jumped-up little twirp and you'll get what's coming to you, got that?! I don't stand by and let people hurl shit at me, especially from an insignificant maggot such as yourself!"

"Don't call me that! You're such a hypocrite, yelling at me for calling you names and throwing them right back at me!"

"At least mine are fucking imaginative, yours were just lame!"

Hatsuharu, being one of the taller first-years, peered over the top of his classmate's heads to spot the bickering pair. They were both boys, no surprise there, and one had cropped purple hair that was definitely against the dress code. That one was obviously the stronger of the two, for he was holding the other up against the wall by his collar with an expression on his face to rival the Hulk. The other didn't look too afraid, just slightly perplexed as to how he'd got to be on the losing side in the first place.

"Ooh, that's a new student isn't it?" Hatsuharu heard a girl whisper to her friend.

"Yeah, he's gotta be, I haven't seen hair like that before!" her friend giggled.

"I bet he's a Yankee. He could run in a gang, I bet."

"I'd let him join mine." Hatsuharu recognised the voice of Arisa Uotani, one of Tohru's friends, hide a hint of admiration. She was stood relatively near him, so he could hone in on her voice pretty easily. "He's pretty good, ain't he? Although, picking fights in school is a bit stupid." She smirked and swept away, bored already with the scene before her.

"Hey", Hatsuharu called over the noise of students clamouring to get a view of the spectacle, "Quit fighting or you'll get yourself messed up. Not to mention you'll probably be excluded before your first day actually starts."

The purple haired boy turned around and searched out the voice. "Hatsuharu?"

He blinked as the entirety of the other boy's face was revealed to him.

Oh my God.

It wasn't some random Yankee yob. It was Tamiko, in a boy's uniform. He couldn't mistake those scars anywhere. Her curves were subtly hidden beneath the solid-black uniform, and she even wore the pure white tie knotted loosely around her neck. He noted that she was also wearing a black T-shirt underneath the jacket to stop any form of cleavage showing through. It was extremely awkward to see her wearing boy's clothing, but then when he thought about it she wore trousers anyway. And with her short hair, he couldn't imagine her in the girl's uniform. He bet with a smirk that Tamiko would refuse to wear a dress to her own wedding if she could. She dropped her opponent's shirt instantly, causing him to scowl at her and storm off in the opposite direction, pushing through the considerably large crowd gathered there by now. "Hatsuharu?" she said again, a frown appearing on her face. She hadn't seen him.

He raised a hand and waved it lightly. "I'm over here."

Completely ignoring the fact that there was a wall of about 6 strong students between them she just strode through it, pushing and elbowing her way to where he stood with a blank expression on his face. The girls surrounding them muttered things like 'Yankees are so violent' and 'Ooh, Haru knows him, maybe they're friends!'He raised an eyebrow at her. "You sure know how to cause a scene."

She shrugged. "The kid was annoying. He called me a vulgar word because I brushed past him. I needed to teach him a lesson." She sighed theatrically, something he'd seen Shigure do so many times, as she added, "Honestly, the youth of today are so rude compared to how we were."

"I'm sure you were all angels." Hatsuharu replied calmly.

"Wait...aren't you interested in why I'm here wearing the boy's uniform?"

"Nothing really surprises me. Although", he said, considering, "the boy's uniform is a surprise, I have to admit."

"It was the only one I could get hold of. It's Shigure's." She shuddered lightly. "I made him wash it first, which is why I'm a little late."

Hatsuharu cracked a smile. "I don't blame you."

"Tamiko?!" Oh yeah. He forgot Momiji was there. The teenager launched himself at her with shining eyes. "What a surprise!"

Tamiko had to step back once Momiji collided with her, and to Hatsuharu's relief neither transformed. She laughed and looked down at him, hugging him in return for the collision. "Well, I'm glad I'm a good surprise." She squinted at him. "Heyy, you got the girl's uniform on. We're both screwy."

Momiji laughed. "I always wear this! It looks better on me!"

"I bet it does." She turned back to Hatsuharu. "So, what's the verdict? Does the black suit me?"

"Huh?" He stared at her as she prised herself free of Momiji and twirled playfully. "Oh...it looks good on you." He tried, cringing at how stupid and dazed he sounded.

"I guess that's the best compliment I'll get." She said, grinning to show she was joking. Resting an arm on his shoulder, she added, "C'mon, let's go see the others. I bet my little ruckus probably disturbed their home room as much as it did yours."

Hatsuharu nodded- he had to admit he was shocked no teachers had come out of their classrooms yelling the odds at her. Then realising Tamiko didn't know the direction of his older cousins' home room, he set off at an unsure pace. Momiji's certainty made up for his feelings when the smaller boy broke into a jog in his excitement to see the others, despite having seen them already this morning. Hatsuharu just shook his head and noticed that Tamiko's arm didn't leave his shoulder.

*~*

She was pretty impressed with herself, if she said so herself. Her plan had gone without much of a hitch. Granted, the mouthy student was an extra thing thrown in, but hey, variety gave it flavour. She'd known the minute Shigure had given her the sly look that he was up to something.

_"Oh, I know where you can get a uniform from...I still have mine from high school."  
_

_"That's gross, Shigure. I'm not going to wear your clothes, not in a million...wait, why do you still have it?"  
_

_"It could come in handy some day, y'know?"_ He'd tipped her a wink as he'd said that, and Tamiko had known that his intentions were anything but innocent. _  
_

_"You sick bastard!"  
_

As a result, she'd left the house with a comparatively battered Shigure waving her off. _"Make sure you check out all the pretty high school girls for me!" _he called merrily. Sicko. Even after being hit by her, he was still ever the pervert. He couldn't stop himself. She supposed it was just in his blood. She was also kinda surprised at Hatsuharu's reaction. The boy didn't seem at all fazed by the fact she was dressed as a boy, but Shigure had said one word of sense at least as she had been reluctantly changing into his uniform; _'Well, you would have more questions raised if you went as a girl than as a boy, Tamiko. Especially with that Yankee-style haircut of yours and those gawdy necklaces.'  
_

It was true, but it hadn't stopped her biting back._  
_

_'Hey, I'm not a Yankee just because my hair's short, you ass! And my choker's not a necklace, it's a symbol!'  
_

Shigure had then been hit for a second time thanks to his overlarge gob. She wondered if he was just a masochistic kind of person.

She had been surprised at Hatsuharu's reaction though. She knew he was very laid-back and liberal, but even she expected there to be a bit of surprise clear in his expression. But there had been nothing- no true emotion had been shown by him, he'd just accepted...she imagined she's be able to streak past him without provoking any response to speak of. Still, it was kind of nice to have that feeling of acceptance. Their relaxed amble was taking them slowly along the corridor in their search for the other Sohmas, and she finally removed her arm from his shoulder and preceded to saunter alongside him, and to those who were passing by it looked as though she was a very cocky and flirtatious boy. In fact, the snippets of conversation she managed to catch seemed to verify the point, causing her to let out a wide grin.

"Is he really a Yankee?"

"Ooh, he looks so tough and hardcore! Did you see his scars?"

"I wonder if he'll join a team or group?"

"Idiot, if he's a Yankee he'll be too busy beating the crap out of someone."

"He's nice though. He so totally has the whole 'bad boy' gimmick going on!

"I bet he could show us a good time!"

Just to taunt them, and to inflate her ego even further, she tucked her hands in her pockets in the most manly pose she could succeed in doing and tossed her head back with a brooding, bored expression. "Hello ladies." She rumbled in a thick, masculine voice that reminded Hatsuharu briefly of one of the voices he knew from the Sohma compound. As a result of her greeting, the girls blushed bright red and giggled amongst themselves. The boys merely looked awkwardly happy to see her. Tamiko turned to Hatsuharu and laughed herself, feeling almost proud of herself. "I couldn't help it! They're such saps!" she snorted through her laughter.

Hatsuharu raised a brow at her. She could see he wasn't exactly happy with her, like a parent disappointed in a child, and her laughter soon died. "You were mimicking Hatori's voice, weren't you? Back when he was a teenager. I knew I recognised it." He said softly.

She froze. Why did he have to bring _him_ up again? Could she go one day without hearing his name uttered by anyone? Her eyes narrowed and she replied coldly, "I can mimic voices as well as forms. It's a lot more difficult, it requires a lot of time being spent with the individual concerned for it to work for me."

"You spent a lot of time with Ayame and Shigure too." He looked genuinely interested now. "Can you mimic them?"

"With practise. Hatori, I just...he's the easiest. Because I was so close."

He considered this for a while as they walked. "That means you'll be able to mimic my voice soon enough." He stated.

She raised an eyebrow, all coldness melted away. "Oh yeah, and what does that mean?"

"It means I'll be seeing you a lot more. I want to be friends with you. So you can speak in my voice." It was a statement, not a request. He'd said it so simply and plainly that she smirked at him. He had to be kidding. No fifteen year old would want to hang around with someone like her. She was _way_ too much of a bad influence. But, if he really wanted to...

"You strike a hard bargain there Sohma. You can be friends with me. So long as you don't call me 'senpai' or anything like you do with Shigure, 'kay?"

He then gave her a genuine smile. "Okay." As they walked, he turned to her and said, "By the way, do you think you could come back to the Sohma compound? I'm sure my place is far quieter than yours."

"Well, I dunno, it could prove a little difficu-"

"What the hell are you wearing?!" Tamiko, to her own horror, jumped in surprise at the yell. Who the hell thought it was okay to yell at her?! She soon got the answer. Kyo had just wandered out of his home room and spotted her. He looked utterly blank. She could tell he was totally speechless. His maroon eyes were focused only on her, and his mouth was fixed on the hanging open pose.

"Ah great." She muttered to herself, regaining her composure after her embarrassing reaction and walked over to him with complete serenity. "Hello Kyo, nice weather we're having huh?"

"What are you wearing that for?! Why are you dressed like a student?! Why are you _**here?!**_" he shot at her, his hands moulding into fists at his sides.

"Aw Kyo-Kyo, I never thought you cared." Tamiko said calmly, smirking at him despite his anger. "I'm here because I thought it'd be interesting. I'm dressed like a student because, duh, I am a student, well that's what this place thinks. And I am dressed like this because I wanted more variety."

"Is this some idea of a sick joke? I have enough of you at home!"

Tamiko rolled her eyes. "Oh please Kyo, don't flatter me any more than you are now." She answered sarcastically.

"Shut up!" he roared.

"Don't speak to your senpai like that, or it'll be the last thing you do." She stated with such acidic calm that Kyo took a step back. "Like it or not, I am wearing the boy's uniform and I am staying here. Get over it." His eyes began to weaken against hers, so she added, "Anyway, I thought you'd want me around. I thought you liked me."

"I...I do _like_ you." Kyo managed to say through gritted teeth.

Tamiko smiled. He was fun to play with. So easy to wind up, and so _so _easy to push over the egde. Not that she liked practising that... "Where are the others?"

"Tohru's inside chatting to her friends, that Yankee and the psychic. As for that damn rat, he's gone to do some student council stuff." He shrugged carelessly. Looking past her, he realised who else was with her. "Oh, hey Haru. Hey Momiji."

"Heya Kyo! Did you say Tohru was in there? I wanna go see her! Me me me!!"

"Oh no you don't, lovrer boy." Kyo said bluntly, grabbing hold of the scruff of Momiji's uniform before he could rush into his homeroom. "Leave her alone."

"Someone's protective of Miss Honda." Hatsuharu observed, cocking an eyebrow as he watched them with the same calm expression he usually held.

Kyo gaped at him and began to splutter a response, but as he did so, he stupidly let go of Momiji's collar. "Yay!" the boy cried, diving through the door in search of Tohru. The three of them heard a crash, cries of 'Momiji, are you okay?!' and Tohru's blabbering as she fussed around him.

Tamiko took one glance at Hatsuharu and said, "Wanna go for a walk?" She was tired of just wandering aimlessly through the halls when she hadn't even been assigned a home room yet. High schools needed to sort out their priorities; if she was an actual student and not an imposter, she would have so got her parents to sue them.

He offered her a small smile. "Sounds good." He looked at Kyo then. "Go look after him with your wife. I'm going walking with Tamiko."

"Wh-what?! My _**wife?! Why are you calling her my wife for, you dumb cow, she's nothing like a wife!!**_"Kyo yelled after them, but neither of them really looked around as they walked away.


	10. A meeting with God

She never had realised before how caring Hatsuharu was. He appeared to everyone as being quite nonchalant, sometimes irritatingly so, but that was just because it was his personality. And it was his idea of being shy. He was emotionally shy, in that respect; he didn't like to show his true colours to most people. The select few were the ones allowed to see what he was really like. And Tamiko was one of them- she liked that about him. Their walk took them to the playing field without either of them speaking, and as she cast her eyes around the vast green space she remembered from her first time here, Hatsuharu finally broke the silence.

"I don't think I mentioned before that I missed you when you left." She looked over to him and saw that his gaze was angled downwards, and he was scuffing his boots in the soil like a child that had been caught out by a parent. "I know I said that you were the only adult who played with me when I was little, but you taught me so much too. And when you left, it was like a bullet had been fired through my chest."

"Hatsuharu...I never knew you felt like that." Tamiko replied, with a hint of guilt weighing down her words. "It was a mistake to leave. How did you get on without me?"

He shrugged, still not meeting her eyes. "I got by. By then, more of the adults didn't think of me as the foolish ox, mostly because they were scared to death I'd turn Black and go stampeding. And I looked after Yuki for you. I would go visit him when he stayed in that room of his in the Main house with Akito. I made sure I never got caught. I needed to let him know someone was there for him, y'know?"

"You always did say you loved him, after that little incident I pushed you into." Tamiko commented, smiling warmly at him.

Yes, she remembered that day, when Hatsuharu had been particularly badly insulted by one of the older members of the martial arts group he attended with Kyo. He'd snapped into his Black self and would have rampaged if Tamiko hadn't been there to settle him. All he'd been shouting was _'It's the rat's fault! It's always the rat's fault! I'm called stupid because of that damn stupid rat!' _So she had been blunt. She'd told him to go and tell the 'rat' just what he thought of him. When Hatsuharu had just stared at her as though she were mad, with those large stone coloured eyes she had shrugged and told him that Yuki would find out sooner or later that he hated him. And if it was a good way to vent his anger, then he should do it. She'd hidden as the child, still clad in his martial arts gear, ran up to where Yuki was staying and belted those hateful words out like he was confessing to a murder. _'I hate your guts! It's the rat's fault everyone laughs at the cow! It's the rat's fault they call the cow a fool and an idiot! It's __**your **__fault, you dirty mean stinking rat!" _And Yuki had just sat there, motionless, used to those words and letting them just wash over him. For a little while, Tamiko had thought suggesting this to him was a mistake. But then, Yuki spoke up. _'Well, is it true? About you, I mean. Is it, is that what you are? Are you a fool?'_ Tamiko had smiled when his words had stopped the fiery, angry little boy in his tracks. It had been just what she had been hoping for. _'No...no I'm not. I'm not a fool. I'm...not a fool...' _Hatsuharu had said, his eyes wider than they had ever been in his shock. He'd finally understood. He finally understood that just because he was being told he was stupid, didn't make him that at all. And the very person that had got him so angry had helped him see that. She had made sure that Yuki knew how much help he'd been just for saying those few words. That was something she couldn't have achieved, because she sat under the label of 'adults' despite only looking eighteen.

Hatsuharu looked at her then, his eyes surprisingly soft for their colour. "You knew it would change my view, didn't you? Having me talk to Yuki?"

Tamiko shrugged carelessly. "I had a hunch. I wasn't certain, but I knew it was a possibility that it would let you see that you weren't as stupid as they all said you were. 'Sticks and stones' and that. Besides, I taught Yuki well. Those words he said were the things that changed you, Hatsuharu. And he deserved a friend, with what he'd been through. I thought the two of you would make good playmates, once the bad feeling was forgotten."

He smiled at her. "Thank you. If it weren't for that day I probably would still think of Yuki as the conniving, mean, stinking..."

"Steady on." She cut in, grinning. "He is your cousin. And your first love, after all."

"And I would have forever thought ill of myself." He bowed slightly to her. "I thank you."

Tamiko found it odd that a boy taller than her was bowing to her like she was some kind of deity, so took a step forwards and touched him on the shoulder. "You don't have to bow. We're friends, remember? I'm no higher than you are."

"If that's true, call me Haru instead of Hatsuharu. It sounds way too formal. And I won't bow or call you 'senpai' or anything like that. Deal?" he said, holding out his hand.

She smiled, and took it. "Deal." Their hands stayed connected as they walked a little further, and she loved the warmness of having another hand encasing hers once more.

"Someone looks like they're having fun."

The voice made Tamiko stop dead. She knew that voice. She felt Hatsuharu tense by the way his hand tightened over hers, and she knew that her suspicions were right. A petite figure seemed to melt out of nowhere from the trees that bordered the playing fields, clad all in black and with hair that swept to one side of his face. He stood with the grace of a king, and when his eyes sought the two out, her stomach clenched. Akito. "Ah, come now, why the silence?" he said, a calm smirk on his face as he advanced towards them with long strides. "Cat got your tongue?" he laughed at his joke and let his eyes drag from Tamiko's face to Hatsuharu's. "What is this? The Ox playing with the Mimicker, the very Mimicker I thought I banished? This is interesting."

Hatsuharu stepped in front of Tamiko and tightened his hold on her hand. "Don't hurt her." There wasn't as much strength in his speech as there should have been, and Tamiko knew it was because he daren't raise his voice to him. Akito was God, after all. Every spirit that possessed the Sohma family couldn't go against anything God said. In fact, his statement had sounded more like the whimper of a wounded animal if anything.

"Don't you _dare_ protect me. _**You**_ get behind _**me**__._" she hissed under her breath, but she was bluntly ignored.

Akito raised a thin eyebrow, looking as though he was trying not to laugh at Hatsuharu's frail request. "You don't want me to hurt her, do you? And who are you to ask that of me?" His smirk returned. "What if I hurt you instead?"

"Don't you dare!" Tamiko yelled, in front of Hatsuharu in seconds and her arms held out as if to shield him from Akito. Her eyes were narrowed and a snarl curved its way across her lips, but Hatsuharu could feel her hand trembling in his. For reassurance, he gave it a soft squeeze and she offered it back. "It's nothing to do with him, leave him be."

"Oh so now you think you can order me around? Tut, tut, Mimicker. Someone really has gone and forgotten her place. Still, that can be changed if need be." He adopted his amiable tone, something that made her shudder inside, as he continued, "It is such a pleasure to see you again, Miss Kasai. After my order I thought I wouldn't see you back here again. Have you seen the others yet, hmm?" He lifted a thin hand up and stroked it down one side of her face. She remained expressionless, and just stared straight ahead of her. She couldn't do anything that would provoke Akito, especially because Hatsuharu was there too. She didn't want him dragged into her mess. "Have you seen Momiji, Kyo...even Yuki? Have you seen how well I've taken care of them? They don't need you. They never did. They say it to make you feel better about your futile attempt at existence." Her eyes quivered but still, she stayed strong and said nothing. "Oh, and I forgot..." he leaned closer and whispered in her ear, "How is Hatori, I wonder?"

That was it. She couldn't contain it any longer. She snapped. Her hand swung out of Hatsuharu's grasp before she realised it and smacked against Akito's cheek, wrenching his head viciously to the right. She breathed heavily as she watched him regain himself, distinctly hearing Hatsuharu's gasp of surprise. "The boys learnt to grow up without any help. It's their own accomplishments that give them their good welfare, not you. Don't drag any of that old crap up, either." She spat. "You frightened little boy."

Akito chuckled darkly and brushed his hand against his now smarting cheek as he turned back to her. "I'm not quite sure I deserved that. I only voiced a name; why does that provoke you so?" He looked past her to Hatsuharu. "Have you told your darling _children_ why Hatori's name affects you so much?"

"They don't need to be burdened with the past. And you don't have the right to say the word 'children', Akito." She said in a voice like venom.

"You're right, perhaps I don't." He moved away slowly, like a retreating lion. "I have to go, I'm sure Kureno will be wondering where I've got to. I would much like it if I saw you again, Tamiko. Somewhere away from the prying eyes of a high school, and the eyes of an ox." He watched Hatsuharu look away from him and added, "On second thoughts, maybe I'll let him sit in. He might learn something."

"I'll be sure to. Thanks for the invitation." She kept her gaze stony but her voice edged towards polite as he walked away. The minute he was out of sight, she lowered her head and sighed. She felt like she'd ran a marathon; her limbs ached and were trembling from the adrenaline they had coursing through them. She'd hit him. She'd really hit him. How could she do that? She'd never done that before... Man, was she going to get in trouble. And how did he know she was back anyway? He must have just happened upon the school and decided to drop in to cause misery on the Sohmas he knew went there. That meant... "Yuki. Kyo." She murmured softly, turning around to look back at the school. "Did he see them? If he touched them, I swear to God..."

"It's okay." Hatsuharu put a hand on her shoulder. "He was looking for me."

"For you? Why?" she asked, frowning.

"I just..." he frowned too. "I didn't return to the Sohma household last night. I wanted to be at one with nature and think some things over. So I stayed out of the compound. I slept under the stars."

"Is that some kind of romantic way to say you got lost?"

He didn't answer, just looked a little awkward and cleared his throat.

She couldn't help chuckling. "You still do that?"

"Yeah, well, geography's not my strong point."

"I swear you need a SAT NAV built into that little noggin of yours." She taunted, flicking his forehead playfully.

"Hey!" He grumbled, giving her a playful push back.

"Miss Kasai! Haru!"

Both looked up as they saw Yuki tearing across the field towards them, his white tie flying out behind him like a banner. He stopped as he reached them and breathed heavily, clearly having run a fair distance and not just the length of the playing field. "I saw Akito with you. He didn't do anything, did he?" he managed to gasp in between pants to reclaim his breath.

Tamiko shook her head. "You don't have to worry about me. He did nothing to Haru. Nothing but empty insults and threats, nothing we can't handle." She looked concerned and put a hand on his cheek. "Don't overexert yourself Squeaker or you'll make your bronchial tubes act up again."

"It's okay Miss Kasai...I'm fine..."

"Tamiko's right, you don't want to hurt yourself." Hatsuharu chipped in, putting his hand on Yuki's free cheek.

This caused him to blush uncontrollably and he wriggled away. "Please, you two are like nervous old grandmothers."

"Is that a bad thing?" Hatsuharu said calmly, his neutral expression back.

Yuki ran a hand through his hair tiredly. "Nevermind. I also wanted to say that lessons start soon, so you better get back." He looked at Tamiko and sighed. "If you had to come into our school, why pick the boy's uniform so you make my job more difficult?"

"Hey, everyone thinks I'm a guy anyway. It doesn't matter much. But okay, lessons are the key to all knowledge and all that jazz." She smirked at the two. "C'mon then, go get your brains pumped full of knowledge." The three made their way back towards the ever-watchful school, ready for a day of lessons and boredom.

*~*

"Oh, you're back young master!"

"Yes, I'm back. The climate was too heavy for me." The maid nodded and scuttled away without any comment, leaving him alone. Without much expression, he walked down the corridors curtly ignoring any of the servants or maids that gave him hushed greetings as he passed.

He knew they were only falsely greeting him; they didn't really _care_, just so long as they were getting their wages paid in by the family they would be as civil as could be. They didn't like him. They didn't love him. They respected him, but that wasn't the same thing. He knew his zodiac loved him; they cared for him, they would do whatever he wanted, they would die for him. He knew they would. Because of the curse. The Animals cannot disobey the orders of God, nor skip around them. The Animals had a duty to fulfil, and he the God was there to make sure they kept in line. A small frown crossed his features as he walked. Despite this confidence, there were some times where he doubted even his zodiac's loyalty. There had been the Dragon, twice defying him to be with some _woman_ outside of the zodiac, the Rat who had tried so vainly to live without his guidance and advice, and that dumb Ox and Horse who thought it was okay to have a relationship behind his back. Well, all of them had paid for their misdeeds, he thought with a smirk, and if they did such things again they would simply be punished again. One day in that little room of his would get Yuki begging for forgiveness, would make even the strong Hatori fall to his knees and grovel.

He liked the idea of his zodiac singing his praises, he always had.

It showed how much they loved him.

Though, this _woman_ returning might change all that. His frown returned. He'd seen how before he'd emerged from his 'hiding place' she had been talking to the Ox, _**his Ox, **_and they had been smiling and holding hands...it disgusted him. His hand struck out violently of its own accord, catching a vase propped on a handsome wooden table. The vase went tumbling into a million pieces and Akito didn't even bother to watch the servants scurry to the scene of the incident with panicked tones to their voices. They were thinking if he was going to cut their pay because none of them were there to pick it up. The fools, what did they know? He broke many things in his own room, it meant nothing that it was out here in the open too. It was that Mimicker's fault. That damn Mimicker. He'd banished her from the Sohma compound years ago, years when he was still a child possessed by the taunting thoughts of his mother. It was all her fault. She was like his mother. She was trying to steal his zodiac away from him. Well, he wasn't going to let them go. He would keep him so close to him she would have no chance of slithering into their family. He wasn't going to let her take his Ox, or his Rat, or even his _**Cat.**_ They were all his, and she would not take them from him. Her or that Honda girl.

Uttering a soft, anguished noise from the base of his throat Akito finally reached what he had been looking for; once the door was slid to he watched with an icy calmness to his eyes as Kureno looked up from his computer desk.

"Kureno." He purred softly. The slightly older man held Akito's eye for a few moments, as though he was hypnotised by a dancing cobra.

"Akito." He said in reply. "You were sorely missed. You shouldn't wander off on your own."

"Don't tell me what to do!" Akito snapped, shutting the door and walking over to him. "I'll do what I want."

Kureno fell silent, knowing better than to argue back to him, especially if he was in _this_ mood. "What has got you so riled, if I'm allowed to ask?"

Akito quietened, and his frown morphed into a glare. "The Mimicker's back. And I'm going to get rid of her. That woman is going to get what's coming to her, mark my words."

Kureno could only stare at Akito with the horror concealed somewhat in the pit of his stomach. He sincerely hoped that the Mimicker-Tamiko, was it?- knew what she was getting herself into.


	11. The dinner

"Okay everyone, tea's served!" Tohru said brightly, placing each individual cup down on the table gently to prevent it from spilling. The boys around the table murmured their thanks, apart from Momiji who practically sang his appreciation. After school, Hatsuharu and Momiji had invited themselves around the house for dinner. "Oh, won't your parents mind?" Tohru had asked. "What if they were making a meal for you and you don't turn up?"

Hatsuharu had just shrugged. "My mom doesn't cook so well."

Momiji just said, "My dad usually just gets takeout. Having a proper meal would be nice for a change!" Tohru honestly didn't know how Momiji was so small, if all he ate was takeaways. And neither Yuki or Kyo had objected particularly strongly (well, Kyo had, but that was just part of his personality, she supposed) so here they were.

She walked back through to the kitchen to take her own cup and smiled at Tamiko. The Mimicker had propped herself up on one of the tops and was stirring her tea absent-mindedly, her eyes focused on the swirling mass of green in the cup. "Tamiko, we're finished now. You can come sit down now." Tohru said.

"Mmm?" Tamiko looked up and her eyes slowly came back into focus. She'd been miles away. "Oh, okay, thanks Tohru. Sure you don't need any more help?"

"I'm sure." Tohru said happily. "The dinner doesn't need to be put in for a while yet, so we can sit and talk."

Tamiko nodded and hopped off from the top, taking her cup and folding both hands around it carefully, like she was trying to steal the warmth it gave her. It hadn't been a cold day, but Akito's visit had given her the shivers. Now he knew she was here, what would he do? Would he summon her? She hoped to God he didn't. She couldn't face being in _that_ room with _that_ person again. But if he threatened any of the Sohma children's wellbeing she would almost certainly have something to shout about. She tapped her fingernails against the china thoughtfully, making a gentle _tap-tap-tap _noise, before following Tohru back into the dining room. She found the only two spaces left were between Hatsuharu and Kyo, so she knelt down beside Hatsuharu and took a quiet sip of her tea before setting it down a little rougher than Tohru had.

"So, how was your first day at our school, Tamiko?" Tohru asked, sitting next to Kyo and turning to look at the only other female in the group.

"Oh, it was okay. I didn't realise how thick I'd been in high school before though. Some of the stuff boggled my mind, I'm not afraid to admit. Especially Math. I forgot how much I hated that subject. I used to bunk off those lessons with 'Gure."

"Way to go for setting a good example." Kyo muttered sarcastically.

"Hey, what can I say, Shigure corrupted me." Tamiko answered with a grin. "And I was convinced I'd be picked up by a publisher's as a novelist, so I thought Math didn't have much say in the equation."

"You wanted to be a novelist?" Yuki asked. When Tamiko nodded, albeit a little sadly, Yuki added, "Well, how did you not get picked up and someone like our cousin did?"

"I wasn't soppy enough. I didn't write love stories with happy endings. Shigure just wrote whatever his perverted mind vomited out. And oddly enough, it was stuff people wanted to read." She smiled. "Saying that, I did have copies of most of his books. He may have written under a pen name, but I know Shigure's writing style when I see it."

"Well you would've sold stories too. You told good enough ones to us." Hatsuharu pointed out, picking up his tea and taking a gulp of it.

"Oh, that reminds me! I was curious, if you don't mind me asking, I know Tamiko had been around your family for a while, but how do you all know her individually?" Tohru asked with interest, her eyes darting around the table.

Yuki and Kyo both turned and looked blankly at the girl in question, taking in her newly put on serene expression and the uniform she wore. Her clothes choice had been something that had astounded the entire school, although most of them thought she was a boy. She had had a bit of a picking on by some students who had found out about her being a girl because of her short hair, but both Tamiko and Black Haru had been able to deal with them quite well.  
Yeah, Black Haru had broken through during a particular spat at lunchtime between Tamiko and a group of boys. They'd been taunting her and one had even grabbed onto her wrist and tried to pull her towards them. Tamiko had dug her heels in and shouted abuse at him that was ignored, and Hatsuharu hadn't been able to stop himself. By the time he'd turned back to White two of the boys had ran off and one was up against the wall with Hatsuharu's hands curled around his throat. Neither Yuki or Kyo understood why Hatsuharu was so protective of her- it wasn't as though she couldn't handle it herself- but at least the boys had been dealt with. They both knew that Tamiko could have potentially gotten rid of them by herself, and they had a feeling she'd been holding back to let Hatsuharu have his chance. It was odd, they all thought as she glanced at the pair; Hatsuharu really did seem to be more talkative than usual; usually he would only speak when spoken to and wouldn't really cut into a conversation that hadn't been aimed at him. He seemed a lot more relaxed too. And Tamiko seemed joined to his hip; it was quite strange for the other boys to behold. What had gone on during their walk, Yuki thought to himself. Obviously something had happened apart from Akito's arrival that had brought the two closer. He didn't want to ask, though. Surely they weren't...no, they didn't seem like that, they just seemed like good friends to him.

Ah, that was it. They'd become friends. Hatsuharu got very clingy once someone accepted his friendship. He then noticed everyone was looking at him to begin his story, so he cleared his throat.

"I have known Miss Tamiko since I was a child. She came to my house with Shigure and Hatori to see Nii-san, but ended up taking me out for lunch once she found out I was going to Akito that day." He smiled at the memory. "She used to stick up for me a lot when I got picked on by the others, especially the adults and Kyo." Yuki shot his rival a fierce glance as he said it. "When my older brother rejected me, she scolded him and gave me as much attention as she could. She always seemed to have time for everyone. She would take me out of the compound on occasion and shielded me from most of Akito's anger." Yuki smiled at her. "And for that I thank you, Tamiko."

"My pleasure." Tamiko bowed her head slightly in respect. "You were always such a shy, quiet little boy. I am so pleased you've turned out the way you have. You've become very strong, even if you don't see it yourself. You've surprised me, and that's always a good thing in my book." She turned to Tohru. "Did I mention that I was the one who taught Yuki how to fight like he does?"

Tohru's eyes widened, as did Kyo's. "Really?! I thought that was just natural talent!"

"Oh don't get me wrong, Yuki has the raw talent of a champion fighter, but I just tweaked it a little, made it look more elegant and flawless. I just turned him from a lion to a jaguar. I made him just that little bit more agile." Tamiko grinned over at Yuki. "By the way you kick Kyo's ass I can tell you get a hell of a lotta practise too."

"So you had Tamiko as a teacher!! You damn rat, that's where you get it from! Tamiko's practically a black-belt!" Kyo stormed.

"Kyo, I said he had raw talent."

"I don't care!"

Yuki just sighed at him. "If you want to believe that Tamiko managed to teach me all she knew then keep believing it, stupid Cat. You're just jealous I got more attention than you did."

"That's not true!"

"So, um...how do you know Tamiko, Kyo?" Tohru asked, trying to avert the conversation away from a potential confrontation.

He scoffed. "I wish I didn't know her, wearing the boy's uniform. She's almost as bad as Momiji." Kyo complained harshly under his breath. This earned him a whack from Yuki and a wail from Momiji.

"Don't be rude, she was the only one save Kazuma who truly stood by you. She deserves more than to be insulted about what she prefers to wear." Yuki hissed.

"Is that true?" Tohru said eagerly, turning to Tamiko for an explanation.

She nodded, making her earrings jangle. "Mmhmm, I sure did. Although little Ume here doesn't like to admit it, he enjoyed my company. I helped out a few times a week at Kazuma's dojo, so I saw Kyo quite often. I played with him because none of the other kids would, out of fear. I knew what it was like to be unwanted, so I made him wanted. I'd take him outside the main house, let him explore a few places... he was scared of a shopping centre when I first took him. He didn't like the number of people swarming around. It was kinda cute actually."

"Shut up, it was not!!" Kyo yelled defiantly. "You didn't help out, you kept putting me off my training! You disrupted my concentration and you kept blabbing on and telling me stupid stories!"

At those words, Hatsuharu put his cup down, wrapped his arms around Tamiko's neck and growled in the darkest tone imaginable, "Her stories were not stupid."

The group blinked at his sudden involvement in the conversation, and his sudden protectiveness of Tamiko. To Tohru's relief, Tamiko had been prepared and didn't transform. If both of them had turned into cows there would have been big trouble. "Haru, it's alright." She said smoothly, prising herself away from the younger boy. "Don't turn Black on us just because Kyo said my stories were stupid."

"They were not stupid." Hatsuharu repeated in the same acid tones, glaring at Kyo.

"I know better than to be provoked by such a weak insult, Haru. You should know that." Tamiko patted his shoulder gently before turning back to Kyo, her eyes flashing. "If you thought I was so useless then why did you always beg Kazuma to go with me?"

Kyo's face filled with colour. "I did not beg! I...asked." He knew that was a down and out lie. He could remember one time like it was yesterday...

_"Kazuma, please! Can I go with Miss Kasai, can I, can I, can I?" He asked, his eyes large and excited.  
_

_Kazuma, his silver hair bound up in a ponytail, smiled serenely and shook his head slowly at the boy of six before him. "Well, she has some errands to run, Kyo. Maybe she would find it easier if you didn't go with her just this once."  
_

_"No! I want to go!" Kyo wailed.  
_

_Tamiko stood up from her seat and walked towards the door. "Sorry little Ume. I won't be long, I promise. I'll be back before you know it."  
_

_"But Tamii!" Kyo rushed out after her. She was in the middle of sliding the door to the dojo open and picking up her shoes. Her back was turned to him, so he took a running jump and landed on her back, wrapping his small arms around her neck. Tamiko let out a slight 'oof' of alarm and doubled over to keep him balanced. "You promised! You promised you would take me out today!"  
_

_"I know I did Kyo, I'm sorry. I need to finish these errands and I'll be back, promise."  
_

_"No, I wanna come with you!" Kyo had wailed, clutching to her tighter like an infant primate.  
_

_"Fine, fine!" Tamiko laughed lightly, hoisting him up higher as she straightened up. "You can come, just let me get my shoes on first!"  
_

He let out a small smile as he remembered, and felt the familiar warm feeling he got when he was around her. She was like his safety barrier, something that was unmoving and safe. That had been squandered a little when she'd left, but it was slowly building back up now she was back. He then shook himself and focused back onto Tamiko.

"As for the stupid stories, I remember the one I told you about the Princess and the Wash-boy. I told Haru that too, didn't I? And Yuki." She smiled gently. "You especially loved that one, Haru."

"I did?" Hatsuharu stared down at her as she mentioned him.

"Of course you did! Remember the moral? 'Love is found in the most unlikely places'. I think it's the most beautiful moral ever. Because it's so true, it is found in the most unlikely of places. And you can't hurry Love nor escape it. It'll come to you in time." She watched Kyo as she said those words, turning him an even darker shade of crimson. "My other favourite is 'Everything has potential. Everyone and everything can, and will, live'. Which is why I think that holding any grudges or bad-feeling is pointless, because you need to get on with it whether you like it or not."  
She avoided most of their gazes when the words were out of her mouth, because she knew what they were thinking. She nursed the largest grudge on Akito. She had no right to say it was a bad thing if she thought it. But she was no saint; it was bad even if she did it or not.

"Wow, so you were a storyteller? I thought that only happens in small close-knit tribes." Tohru said brightly, cutting through the atmosphere created like a knife.

Tamiko looked thoughtful. "Well, I once considered the Sohma family to be a tribe, seeing as like you said, it's very close and connected. But instead of some haggard old woman who sits in the corner and throws cats around, no pun intended there Kyo, they have me!" she chuckled and picked up her cup again, taking another swift drag of the now cooling tea.

Tohru looked up at a sudden pinging noise coming from the kitchen. "Oops, it looks like dinner's served! Hold on just a second."

The others nodded and watched as she rose to her feet and bustled happily to the room the ping originated from.  
Dinner was a considerably quiet occasion, as evidently they were all mulling over what had been revealed by each other. Once the plates were cleared away (with both Tamiko and, to her amusement, Kyo's help) they sat back down at the table and more tea was poured for them by an all too happy Tohru. With their stomachs full and with happier moods, Tohru paused before asking her next question. "Why don't you age, Tamiko?"

All look of happiness and ease vanished from Tamiko's face at Tohru's question. She fell silent. "I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." Tohru apologised quickly. Everyone's eyes were on Tamiko now. The boys had never heard the reason why she couldn't age, they had just accepted the fact that she couldn't. But here she was, being offered the question. Would she take it?

"It's okay Tohru. You were curious. And I'm sure so are the others here. There's no need not to tell you, I've just never been asked by anyone." She lowered her head and closed her eyes, as though trying to remember a vivid memory. "I was cursed. Well, my family was cursed. The Kasai and the Sohma families were once important and well off families, as the Sohmas still are, and both were deadly enemies. In an attempt at some kind of final decision between the families, they had a battle. The family that lost had to give up their best child as a servant to the rival family. The Kasai family lost. I wasn't born then, but it was my direct ancestor who was chosen." She shrugged lightly before continuing, "Anyway, it happened like any normal family feud. The fighting stopped, the Sohmas took the Kasai child and everything should have been brilliant. But it wasn't. It was at the same time as the Sohma ancestors were cursed. When they were possessed by the twelve spirits, my mother was cursed to serve them and remain forever young. She remained the age she was when she was cursed, which was around the 30 marker. But what seemed to happen was when she had me, the non-aging passed onto me and left her. So she was content to die in peace and left me on my own. I grew up pretty much like a normal kid, except when I reached 18 I just stopped aging." She picked up her cup and twirled the remainder of the tea inside it thoughtfully. "That was about 40 years ago now, when Akita was still the head of the Sohma family. I've seen many Sohmas come and go, many of the spirits pass onto other bodies, and yet here I sit, forever 18. And believe me, it is not as good as it sounds. Once the curse has lifted upon the Sohmas, so too does my curse. I will no longer be bound to them and I will also begin to age."  
She lowered her head at this point and set her cup down without drinking from it. "It could also mean that the many years my ancestors have bourne will count, and that means that I could quite possibly turn to dust once the Sohma curse has been lifted or broken. I could die."

A silence followed her announcement. Hatsuharu replied to her story by wrapping his arms around her comfortingly and hugging her against him. This time, she didn't fight him off and leaned her head back against his shoulder, an action that made Hatsuharu uncharacteristically blush. As though she'd sensed his awkwardness, she immediately moved away from him and pushed him aside playfully. "Get the hell off, you sentimental ass. It's not that bad." She said affectionately.

Haru offered her a small smile, and she guessed it was one of gratitude.

"So...you were cursed too?" Tohru said with wide eyes, clearly drawn into Tamiko's tale now.

She nodded. "Yes. And I'm sure that if I could, I could break the curse upon the Sohmas." She looked around at them all, watching their reactions. All of them seemed to freeze and stare at her. "But I don't know whether I would, for my own selfish sake." She shrugged. "I've lived like this for years, I'm scared of what could happen. Even I'm scared of death and what happens after it."

"You won't die." The voice made her look up. Hatsuharu stared her down with such firm calmness she found herself believing it. "You won't. I believe you won't."

"Haru, believing it won't make it happen." Kyo sad, resting his hand in his hand as he gazed at the two of them.

Hatsuharu shrugged, and leaned back on his palms. "I know it won't. But it's better than living in the dark and always thinking like a pessimist."

He was saying this for her benefit, Tamiko could tell that. She tipped him a quirky smile. "You're right." When she glanced at the clock, she grimaced. "And it is getting really late. You and Momiji should head off home."

"Ah." His eyes had obviously found the time too. "Crap. I was having fun here." He sighed. "Alright, come on Momiji, time to go."

"Aww, but we were just getting to the good parts!" Momiji whined. "Can't we stay a little longer."

Tamiko shook her head, her motherly side taking over. "You can't 'mige, it's dark outside. Your parents will kill you if you're out past this hour."

"What if we got an adult escort to take us home?" Hatsuharu asked, inclining his look towards her.

"I hope you mean in the 'walk you home sense' and not the other one." Tamiko said curtly, standing up from the table. "Okay then, I'll walk you two home. Come on."

Tohru started as both boys moved from the table and went obediently to her side like puppy dogs. "But, it's the main house! Are you allowed, I mean, I heard that Akito forbade you to go inside!"

By this time the trio had moved down into the hallway and Momiji was in the process of pulling the door open. Tamiko turned to look at her, the dim light there was remaining illuminating her face shape, and the scars along with it. "Tohru, when do I ever go by any rules?" she said tauntingly, a small smirk on her face as she said it. And before she could reply to her, the three were out of the door and it was slid to.


	12. In the Dark

**Author's Note: Heyy! I'm so sorry this took so long; I've been bogged down with a lot of schoolwork lately, and I've been busying myself with another story I'm doing that's OC only, so it wouldn't have exactly been suitable for this site. Hopefully though, I'll be able to get back into the swing of things sooner or later, so for the moment, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I'd love to hear any feedback from you! Thanks! Kes~**

The walk back to the Sohma estate was one that was considerably quiet, for the people that were there; Momiji was as silent as the grave, and Hatsuharu was just being himself and letting his mind drift aimlessly through the night. Tamiko was walking in between them, her eyes darting here and there at every rustle she heard. She let her hands delve deep into the pockets of her coat she'd managed to snag off the rack as they'd left, and frowned. She should have told them to get back earlier. It was far too dark for them to be out at this hour. And too late for herself really, by the look of her.

Momiji was acting much like his zodiac self and flinching every time a car drove past, and more than once he grabbed onto Tamiko's arm for moral support. Hatsuharu, though, was deadly calm, as though he was just walking along the road on a beautiful sun-lit morning. Tamiko found this a little odd for someone whose cousin the same age was clinging to her like a limpet. Perhaps his parents were happy to let their son wander the streets aimlessly into the early hours of the morning; Hatsuharu was the type of teenager that probably was used to it, she had to admit. He looked streetwise enough to her. She'd never met his parents, thinking about it- she'd brushed with Yuki's, unfortunately, and Kyo's mother on occasion, but never Hatsuharu's. Either his parents were very mysterious or didn't get out much. Or maybe it was the complete opposite. Maybe they were always out, and so much so that Hatsuharu was left to fend for himself quite often. Tamiko's hand almost clenched into fists, but she suppressed the urge. She didn't like that idea at all, but she had to remind herself that he was a teenager now and was probably pretty used to it by now.  
She felt Momiji clutch even tighter to her, and she looked down at him. "Hey, what is it 'mige?"

The young boy shuddered and met her eyes with his own milky brown ones. "It's so dark."

"Duh, it is night time, Momiji. It's okay, surely you're not scared of the dark are you?"

"N...No..." he flinched as a car drove past the pavement and Tamiko patted him on the head soothingly. There wasn't that far to go anyway now; from the looks of things, they only needed to turn right once more and they would reach the main gates of the Sohma compound. Tamiko felt a little shudder of apprehension ripple through her. She hadn't gone through those gates in so long. The last time she had, Shigure, Ayame and Hatori had been high school seniors. Now they were all well into their twenties, she assumed, and were fully involved in their lives. Still, it seemed only two of them had managed to escape the compound. Shigure had the house 'outside'. Ayame had his fabric shop along with the little apartment up above it. But Hatori remained in the compound, the family's doctor and more often than not a pet for Akito to fawn over.

She gritted her teeth as she thought of Akito. Bastard. He was so intent on keeping everyone together, but sooner or later there would be a trigger that would sent them all flying off in different directions like startled horses. And none would run in his direction. As they turned the corner, Momiji's mood seemed to brighten a little; his grip on Tamiko's arm fell slack, to her relief, and his pace began to increase in the eagerness to reach his home. She looked over at Hatsuharu and noticed that he looked the same as usual. There was no joyful expression on _his_ face at the thought of home. She frowned lightly. "Hey, Haru?"

He looked at her. "Mmm?"

"Being absentminded? Or afraid of the dark?" she asked, smirking.

He raised an eyebrow and looked ahead. "I don't mind the dark. It's overpowering, sure, but it's nice to stand out in and dwell."

"Uh huh." Tamiko's nose wrinkled and she snorted. "You really are a young old man, Haru."

He gave her a small smile in return to her comment, and she smiled back.

"Well, we're home!" Momiji trilled, and practically yanked Tamiko inside after pressing the button that allowed them through.

"Momiji, this is not a good idea! I'm banned from the compound, remember?" Tamiko protested, but she might as well have been arguing with a rock for all the good it did her. The blond boy just giggled and pulled her inside, through the gates and onto the pathways that wound their way through the compound like rivers.

"It doesn't matter, everyone's asleep by now! And it's dark, so no one can tell!" he called over his shoulder.

"I doubt that anyone's asleep now with your mouth." Hatsuharu added curtly, rubbing his head as if to demonstrate. As the trio bickered, they came within earshot of one particular house.

******

Hatori was sat in his study, writing down another observation of Akito's condition. The head of the family was sick so often, noting them down was the only way Hatori could keep on top of it all. And hopefully, if the doctor could notice a pattern of the illnesses then maybe he could find a way to keep on top of them, or get rid of them for good. But, as of yet, he'd got nothing. Not a single pattern to speak of.

He sighed and gave up his writing, glancing down at the desk and letting out a soft sigh. So long as no one became deathly sick, he had no patients for the remainder of the night. Maybe he could get out of Sohma house for a while, just go for a walk in the town. The dark would keep him quite invisible to most people; he wasn't a necessarily out of the ordinary man, so he could get away with moving down a street with no trouble. And at this time of night, there would be less risk of knocking into anyone and giving away his secret. He could, he thought, stop by Shigure's. The Dog was a very odd sleeper, and would literally go to bed whenever he felt the need to. There was no true pattern he stuck to, and as a result Hatori could predict that he would probably be up at this hour trying to keep Yuki and the others awake for company. Or maybe he would be trying to keep tormenting that poor suicidal editor of his at such a late hour. A small smile crossed his face. It wouldn't surprise him in the slightest; he'd known Shigure since they were kids, and knew perfectly well what he was like. Either way, he was going nowhere near Ayame's shop. Never again would he step foot in that place unaccompanied, especially during the night. It was bad enough in the day, he dreaded to think of what went on at this time.

His eyes drifted downwards to the small drawer he had in his desk. He hesitated, before nodding to himself and drawing it back, sorting through the clutter and papers that were once in organised piles but in his past urgencies were everywhere. Finding what he was looking for, he set the photograph down on the desk on top of the paper he'd been writing on, and he smiled a little more genuinely.

The picture he had in front of him was of a much younger him, along with Shigure and Ayame. All had wide, innocent eyes and meek, mild little smiles. And then the, what he would call correct reason for his smiling; the bright, cheery-looking girl next to them, with her tongue hanging out of her mouth. He remembered that she'd done it the very moment the photo had been taken.  
"I'm surprised none of us were fighting during it." He said to himself thoughtfully. He touched a fingertip gently to the girl's hazelnut-brown hair, short and cropped like a boy's compared to the other girls he could remember having been in his first-year class. They'd all been about six after all, not many of them had the right to wear their hair that short.

He couldn't exactly remember when the four had been properly introduced (he amused himself at the irony of that) but he was quite sure they ended up putting their grade teacher into an asylum before too long. Looking up from the picture, he rose from his chair and took a long walk outside, lighting up a cigarette as soon as he reached the outdoors. Yes, he did miss those days when he didn't have to care about anything except pulling Shigure or Ayame out of any trouble they got themselves into. He'd never had to with her- she was far too clever to get caught, unlike the other two. And, he had to admit, he'd missed her. It was nice she was around now, even if she wasn't around him so much.

And it was then that he spotted an unfamiliar figure traipse into the Sohma grounds flanked by two others, a large coat slung on their shoulders and a slightly bouncing gait to their step. Hatori didn't need telling that it was a female. It had to be. And when he noticed the familiar figure of Hatsuharu walking beside her and the slightly smaller Momiji tugging somewhat violently on her coat, he knew that it was Tamiko. What was she doing here? Did she have a death wish? Akito would kill her if he knew she was on Sohma property. She knew that as well as anyone. The last time they had met... he shuddered as he thought about it. That was sure to happen again if she wasn't too careful. But she always was, that was the thing. And she was so streetwise and confident it was a danger to her, in a way. She thought she was untouchable, and that wasn't true. She would find that out in time, he supposed. Then again, maybe she could soften Akito up a bit; the head of the family wasn't the easiest person to get along with, but Tamiko was a social butterfly and had always seemed to manage to weedle conversations out of anyone if she had put her mind to it before. Still, he couldn't help feeling a little worried about this. As he watched, he deliberated on going over to them and warning Tamiko off about coming here.

******

"Haru, is that a figure of a guy watching us or is my eyesight on the blink?"

Before he could respond, Momiji cut in. He tilted his head to one side with a curious puppy and followed Tamiko's line of sight. A quiet 'oh' escaped his lips and he chimed, "That's Haa'ri. He lives there now!"

Her mood immediately sobered. "Ah, I see." She kept her gaze in that direction. "He's nearest to the main house. Seems he's gone up in the world since I last knew him." she pointed out, the frown on her face slowly moulding into a weak glare.

Hatsuharu hesitated. "What is it with you and him? What went on between you two?"

"Sorry Haru, I don't really like divulging my secrets." Tamiko then flashed him a bright smile. "But, you're cute. So maybe I could make an exception, someday."

Hatsuharu looked in bewilderment at her, then promptly flushed bright red. "O-oh..." was all he could seem to say.

"Aww, she hasn't got you embarrassed has she Haru?" Momiji asked a playful smile on his face.

Tamiko laughed at Momiji and Hatsuharu's reaction and ran a fingertip down his ear, letting it smooth across his piercings she found there. "I don't care if he's embarrassed. Makes him all the more cute. Of course, if you don't like the word 'cute' I could use a more manly word. Like, oh I don't know... 'hot' could do the trick, couldn't it?" she winked and drew her finger away. "I'm only playin' Haru, don't you worry."

Haru flushed even redder and shrugged idly. "Eh." Was all he said.

Tamiko laughed and patted him on the shoulder. "I'll see you two tomorrow, okay? I think I need to talk to Hatori about a few things. We didn't really have much chance the last time we met." When the two teenagers looked curiously at her, she waved away their stares. "Go on, go. The shortest amount of time you get seen with me the better."

Momiji was the first to go. He shrugged and said, "Okay, not that it would stop us, Tamiko! See ya!" he skipped off (how he could skip so late Tamiko had no idea) in the direction of his house merrily, leaving Hatsuharu alone. He stared at her for a brief while, before nodding slowly and making his way back to his own house without another word.

Tamiko smiled after them and then made her way over to where Hatori was stood, her smile soon leaving her face. He didn't make any move to leave, and she could almost see his eyes on her as she wandered over. "How long were you going to stand there snooping on me like I'm a naughty kid?"

Hatori lowered his gaze down to her level. "Until I saw you leaving. You know Akito will have you skinned alive for pulling a stunt like this."

"I'm not pulling any kind of stunt on him. It's late, Haru and Momiji needed to get home, and I didn't feel comfortable seeing them go on their own. So I came with. It's as simple as that. Akito should be grateful that I'm taking such good care of his _animals_."

Hatori's expression remained stony. "All the same, you know full well what will happen if you get spotted around here."

Tamiko raised an eyebrow and slouched next to him, her stance almost mirroring his own. "So what, you're going to turn me into Akito? Since when did you become his faithful pet?"

She noticed Hatori visibly flinch, and she couldn't help feeling just a little bit pleased with herself. It wasn't that she liked to see him hurt, far from it; but getting anything out of that emotionless face of his was a feat worth feeling proud of, good or bad. "That is your opinion, not fact. You know that I wouldn't ever become a pet to him. He just needs a lot of help, and I am the only one able to give it to him."

Tamiko shook her head a little sadly. "What happened to you?" She'd said this before, but the question had gone unanswered by him every time she'd spoken it. "You may have the overall same face as before, but you have changed, Hatori."

He looked at her for a long time, and for a second she was sure he wasn't going to answer her; that he would just push her away again and ignore her. But then, a small smile wove onto his face and he leaned back against the wall of his house. "I grew up. In both senses."

Tamiko gave him a soft smile. That had almost been playful in its tone. "Oh haha, very funny you stand up comedian." She pushed him gently on the shoulder. "I see you still smoke. I thought that was just a rebellious little streak of yours when you were a teenager."

He gave her a shrewd look. "Me, being a rebel? Perish the thought, Miss Kasai."

She chuckled again. Now this was how she remembered him- still a little stern, but not afraid to joke. He didn't really have much of a chance to be really serious with Shigure and Ayame constantly flittering around him. He had still managed to keep the two of them in line though, despite all that. Then again, when he couldn't be bothered he just let them run amok. He was like their older brother even though he was exactly the same age. She smiled and asked, "What is wrong with the head of your elite family, then?"

"I cannot disclose it. You know that." He drew deeply on his cigarette then took it out of his mouth to breathe a small cloud of smoke out into the night air. "But I can say this. He's a very sickly man. I need to attend to him quite a lot, and I can't always help everything."

Tamiko raised an eyebrow and let her smile slide into a soft frown. She knew Hatori well enough to know that he never really said that he couldn't do anything unless it was something he was physically unable to do it through boundless times of trying. "Is something seriously wrong with him?"

He didn't say anything for a while, and Tamiko was content to stand in silence with him. She then thought back to something Hatsuharu had said, and realised that he was quite right. Standing out in the night wasn't something to be afraid of; it was something that was kind of comforting. The pure blackness of the area save for the golden glow of the streetlights further away gave a quiet kind of reassurance to her. The stars were just beginning to come peeking out through the thick blackness, and as she stood there Tamiko slowly counted the constellations that were present. She began to shiver. The night was turning cold, far colder than it had been when she'd set off with Momiji and Hatsuharu, and without realising it her teeth began to chatter. Hatori looked at her questioningly, and she was about to ask how he could possibly be comfortable in this temperature with only a suit on, but he beat her to it. "You should go, Tamiko. You look cold, and I can't afford to have a hypothermic Mimicker on my hands, especially one that is hated so much by Akito."

"And why is that?" She managed to stammer through the cold. He raised both eyebrows at her as a hint to keep quiet, but she continued, "It was your fault as much as it was mine." She folded her arms against her chest and drew her coat tighter around her.

Hatori didn't respond to her words, just kept silent. Tamiko sighed. That was going to be the best she could get out of him, in that case. She'd gone too far, and there was no way he'd divulge anything else now. But then, just as she was about to launch herself off the wall and walk away, he muttered, "I see that you're keeping friends with Momiji and Hatsuharu."

She nodded curtly. "Yes. Is that a problem? Surely you're not getting jealous."

He bristled. "Nothing of the sort. Just be careful."

"What do you mean, 'be careful'?" she said indignantly, moving away from the wall now to look at him.

He sighed, and she almost saw a sense of defeat in those expressionless eyes. "Because you know what happened last time. I don't want to be in the place my father was before. And I don't want to stand by and see my friend hurt, along with my teenage relatives."

Tamiko shook her head and tucked both hands in her pockets again. What was it with people not trusting her? She was an adult, and perfectly capable of keeping herself safe, along with anyone else who came her way. She let a little scoff escape her throat. "You don't want to see me hurt, after what you've done? That's laughable, Hatori. And you know that I won't let anyone take my falls. I didn't before and I won't now. If you excuse me, I think I should be going before Akito releases his hounds." Without even waiting for Hatori to respond, she turned on her heel and strode away, her petite form slowly melting into the night.

Hatori sighed and watched her go, thoughts twirling in his head like fireflies eager to escape into the air. He stood there for a few moments more, until he was sure Tamiko would be out of the compound and safe. _**Safe**_. Even though she thought he hated her, he still couldn't help looking out for her. With another resigned sigh, he moved back into the house and resumed his reports with a somewhat heavier heart than before.


	13. Dunking the dog

**Author's note: Wow, I didn't expect to have another chapter up so early. I guess I've just been a little bored lately, and seeing as 'Teardrop' seems to be my fall back-on story then it was getting done rather quickly xD The next chapter will probably full of the Mabudachi Trio's flashbacks, just for the hell of it, because it sounds fun in my head. And I didn't want to bore you all with the same silly 'And then they went to school! blahblahblah' And also...Shigure is so close to being sweet in this chapter! So close! Then he ruins it by acting like...well...himself. Silly Shigure! Haha, enjoy anywhos! Kes~x**

Tohru awoke with a start the next morning, which was unusual for her seeing as her body clock seemed to know when to get up and when not to. She squinted at the clock on her bedside table and frowned lightly. Five in the morning? What had driven her to get up at five in the morning, even on a school day? Still, now she was awake there would be little she could do to drift back to sleep. She stood up rubbing her eyes and dressed into her cleaning clothes; she figured that if she was going to stay up, she might as well get some housework done. She knew that neither Yuki nor Kyo would be up, but perhaps Shigure would be. She knew his strange sleep patterns as well as anyone. He didn't exactly have anything to get up for, she had to admit, as she stepped out of her room and onto the landing. She could do some washing this morning, and then after that prepare the ingredients for the dinner she was planning on making that evening...as she thought idly through things whilst she pottered about the house, she remembered something.

She couldn't recall Tamiko coming back to the house last night. She had gone back with Momiji and Hatsuharu to the Sohma compound, but Tohru was certain she hadn't returned. A worrying thought clutched at her stomach and whirled it around in spirals like a lasso. Where could the girl have gone? She couldn't have got lost, could she? And from the serious expressions the boys held whenever she talked about the Sohma estate, if she had stayed there she wouldn't be very welcome. Tohru had warned her about it beforehand, but Tamiko had just smirked at her as if she'd asked a dog not to chase a cat, and waved away her concerns and worries for her welfare whilst she stepped into the night flanked by the two boys. She was fearless, and Tohru had a feeling that the manner of thinking the Mimicker used got her into more trouble than it was worth.

As she reached the kitchen, still deep in thought, she didn't notice the large shape outside the back door until she actually looked out of the window to check the weather. And there she saw it. It wasn't exactly clear from where she was stood, but the figure was just out of range of the trees that bordered the house. For a second she thought it was Tamiko, and then realised it definitely wasn't person shaped. When an animal's form came into view, Tohru reconsidered her dismissal of it being Tamiko. A familiar bluey-grey coloured cow was led flat out o the shortly trimmed grass where it had fallen on one side, with its eyes tightly shut as though trying to rid itself of some nightmare. It shuddered lightly from either the cold or pain of some sort, but its legs were flat out and stuck out at odd angles. Tohru's heart went into her mouth and she rushed outside to see to it, the washing ignored for the time being.

"Tamiko!" she yelled, reaching the spot where the cow lay within moments. One eye opened at the sound of the name being called, but the animal made no move to get up from its place. "Tamiko, what are you doing out here? It rained last night, you'll get ill!"

"That's...something...I'm used to having...happen to me..." The cow Tamiko suddenly said with long intervals between the words as she breathed labouredly.

"Why didn't you wake us up?! I would have come down and helped you!"

"You...were all...asleep..." Tamiko answered, tucking one leg underneath her as she attempted to pull herself upright. "Didn't want to...bother you."

"You can bother me! It's not a bother, not if you're going to get ill if not!" Tohru cried, instantly rushing to her aid.

The cow put its ears back and faced her with a glare. "Don't...help me...I'll crush you if I fall...just let me transform and I can do it myself."

Tohru went to complain, but held herself back as Tamiko bellowed a warning. Tamiko was obviously used to dealing with things on her own, but surely she didn't have to be that way if she just let someone get close to her. Tohru had thought, or at least considered, the fact that she could have been a friend to her, but the girl still held a lot of secrets deep within her, and for the first time Tohru doubted that even she was going to be let in on the secrets. There was a sudden cloud of blue colour from where the cow Tamiko had once stood, and in its place was a wiry haired dog, the same colour as the cow and horse spirits she was possessed with. It walked towards Tohru with its tail between its legs and a wretched expression on its face despite the fact that its head was held high with the air of confidence. "Why did you choose a dog...?" Tohru turned towards the direction in which Tamiko was looking, and saw Shigure.

The novelist had obviously come from his study to see what the fuss was about, and no doubt why the cold weather was seeping into the house. Now he caught sight of them, he walked over with a confused look. "What is Tamiko doing out here? She wasn't thinking of jumping into any of the boy's windows were you, you filthy little woman!" He said brightly, completely unfazed by the idea of it being five in the morning and the sun hadn't even risen properly. He was either a brilliant morning person or he'd been awake for a good while dosed up on caffeine. Both Tamiko and Tohru expected the latter.

"I'm not a pervert like you are!" Tamiko barked angrily in her form, though she did take the opportunity to throw herself at him happily. "What are you doing up so early?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I got some more ideas down before my editor starts baying for my blood." Shigure crouched down to Tamiko's eye level and ruffled the top of her head lightly. "What _are_ you doing out here, Tamiko? You should be asleep."

"I was being caring and took Haru and Momiji back to the compound. Once I left I didn't want to come back, so I just wandered around aimlessly for a while. Tried my hand at organising thoughts, though I think they remain completely and utterly scrambled." She closed her eyes and shoved her nose up against his palm. Amongst other things, such as the ink and paper he'd just been using and sweat every person had, he smelt of safety and solidarity to her, rather like Hatori and Ayame did. He was one of her trusted refuges. Despite his flaws, she really did value him, and she hoped that he understood that. It was only when she sneezed rather violently that Shigure stood up.

"Come on. This weather isn't doing you any good." Tohru watched silently as he stooped to pick her up carefully, and blinked a few times. She had been living here for almost two years now, and she felt that she knew Shigure quite a bit. However, there were sometimes little peaks of personality that poked through a veil that surprised her. This was one of those times. He straightened up with the dog Tamiko in his arms and looked straight at her, his brown eyes full of something Tohru couldn't quite pinpoint. But it was one of the rare occasions she thought he looked serious, and that was quite disconcerting. She followed him into the house and shut the door securely behind them.

Tamiko lay rather contentedly in his arms, and didn't try to struggle until she realised where he was taking her. "No. No, Shigure, I'm not going into the bath like this! I'll get dog hair everywhere! And you'll try to bathe me, don't you DARE Shigure!!!" Shigure just chuckled and pretended not to hear her as he made his way up the stairs whistling lightly to himself. Tohru sighed, somewhat relieved for once that Shigure seemed at least a little back to his abnormal self. She set about doing the washing, and any worries escaped her mind.

Meanwhile, there was a great deal of noise coming from the bathroom. A few angry barks, a splash, and a howl came one after the other, and it was clear that Shigure had gotten his wish. Tamiko was sat in the bath tub, water spraying over her fur whilst she glowered at the ink black dog opposite her, in the dry. "If I could reach you, I would kill you, you know that don't you?" she snapped at him, baring her teeth in the typical canine fashion. Shigure looked unconcerned, and tilted his head to one side comically as he watched her.

"No matter what you think, I didn't just throw you into that bath for fun, though it was quite fun", she growled at him before he continued, "I know how colds can get, and you wouldn't want one in this weather. It could turn into a fever."

She blinked at him. "Well..."

"And I know", he cut across her, "that you want to keep making sure that the boys are doing well, am I right? So having a cold won't help you in the slightest. You might even have to stay home."

"Over my dead body." She spat, and lowered her head in an attempt to shoo away the water landing on her head.

Shigure stood up, his tail wagging slowly like the pendulum of a grandfather clock. He looked quite pleased with himself. "Aren't I clever? So you need a hot bath and plenty of warm food." He made to leave, but a sharp yip stopped him. Tamiko was sat with the water still pouring over her, though this time she was letting it wash over her instead of trying to dodge the flow.

"Yes you are clever." She said, the serious note in her voice making Shigure turn back around to look at her. "Thank you. I appreciate this. Since when were you so..."

"Intelligent? Brilliant? Vastly good looking?" he guessed.

"...So considerate, I was going to say." She attempted, shrugging as the other dog's face clearly fell. "But intelligent is also another good point."

"Huh, charming." Before the dog Shigure could say anymore, there was a sudden puff of smoke, and Tamiko blinked as it began to clear. Sure enough, there was Shigure, standing totally butt-naked in front of her. Her eyes went as large as dinner plates, and a blush seemed to cover the dog's cheeks as she wrenched her head to the left in order to stop herself looking.

"Shigure, go and put some clothes on!" she yelled.

She could almost _see_ the smirk on his face as he replied back, "Must I? Maybe I like walking around nude."

"No you don't because you'd scar your kid cousins! Please just put some bloody clothes on!"

"Uh, uh, uuuuh Miss Kasai, aren't you forgetting something? If I've turned back, what does that mean for you?"

Horror stole through her, and as if her body was waiting for Shigure to utter those words, she felt the cloud engulf her. Oh great. She shut her eyes as she turned back to face him. "Shigure, don't you _**dare**_ look at me or you'll suffer a fate worse than death!"

"I can look if I want to!" he cried in that typical sing song voice of his, and she curled herself up in an attempt to hide herself.

"I said go away!" she shouted loudly, so loudly even it made the window above her rattle.

"You heard her. Go away." Her eyes opened then one after the other as she heard that familiar voice. _Hatori_ of all people was stood over Shigure with a look of sheer boredom on his face, something that Tamiko could see through as being a little bit irritated at his friend at the same time. "You're not harassing a minor are you Shigure?" he asked shortly, raising an eyebrow as he looked down at him.

Shigure looked blankly at him for a few moments, completely wrong footed by his sudden appearance, and rubbed the back of his neck with a light chuckle. "Heh, of course not! What's the fun in that? I was just making sure she took her daily bath."

"She told you to leave, and you refused. I'd say that was harassment." Hatori replied coolly. Shigure stared at him for a few moments, a little worried it would seem by the look on his friend's face. "Still, I think you really should get changed now. It will soon be time for Yuki and Kyo to get up and get themselves ready for school."

_School! _Tamiko's eyes bulged. How late was it, if the boys were only just getting up now? They would want to come into the bathroom, and she was certainly not going to let them whilst she was in this state. She shivered as she realised the water had lost its warmth long ago, and Hatori motioned for Shigure to leave. The other man did as he was told, and slunk away to get changed before anyone else could spot him. Hatori quirked a tiny smile at his friend's disappearance, and turned to face Tamiko again. "Come on, get out of there. You'll catch a cold." She glared at him shrewdly before reluctantly stepping out of the bath and taking the towel he offered her. She noticed, with relief, that he had kept his eyes firmly averted from her, and she was glad of that. Having his eyes look over her naked body would be more than an awkward situation- she would want to be dragged to the depths of _hell_ to evade embarrassment. He was a doctor, so it was to be expected that he would have the manners that people like Shigure lacked. He kept his grip on it however, and to her surprise found him wrapping it around her securely. "There. You won't let any cold in now."  
She looked up at him gratefully, though her bewilderment about his being here was obviously shown on her face because Hatori muttered, "I was worried about you. I saw the way you ran off last night, and I know from experience that that usually means you're going to get yourself into trouble. You never seem to look where you're going when you're in that kind of mood."

"...Thank you." She set about drying herself off, and brushed past him in order to reach her room. To her surprise, she heard him follow her. "As you can see, I'm fine, so there's no need to worry, least of all about me." As she turned to slip her underwear on underneath the towel to save the awkwardness of standing there in just her bra and knickers in front of him, she was sure she heard him sigh. "Hatori, you've said it yourself. I'm dangerous. Trouble follows me. Why are you so intent on sticking around if you won't talk properly to me?"

He hesitated for a while, and Tamiko took the opportunity to pull her uniform out from the wardrobe she now had, along with dropping the towel and beginning to dress. "It's just difficult for me."

"If it's so difficult, then why bother struggling with it?" Tamiko answered, pulling her black top on in order to emphasise her curves less.

"If I followed that philosophy, Tamiko, I wouldn't be a doctor would I?" He paused, and she could sense his eyes on her. "Since when did you wear a boy's uniform? Come to think of it, when did you start back at a high school?"

She couldn't help sniggering as she looked back at his puzzled face. "I'm going to Kaibara high school to keep the kiddiewinks out of trouble. And sitting around this house all day gets very boring. As for the boy's uniform, well..." she shrugged, "I always preferred it to the girl's. And with my haircut no one can tell the difference."

Hatori's nose wrinkled a little. "And is that..."

"Shigure's. Yeah. He wouldn't shell out for another one, and I wasn't going to pay for it myself."

The doctor shook his head, a pained look on his face. "Lord help me."

Tamiko grinned at him. This was a start. Definitely a start, if nothing else. Before she could say anything else however, she heard the distinct yelling of Kyo from his room as the teenager walked into his shut door. "For God's _sake_, I hate this crappy house!" he snapped, and before she knew it he came into view with the grumpy morning anger she was used to etched in his very being. "What are you looking at? I'm going to shower, is that a crime now?!" he shouted, before pulling the bathroom door to and grumbling to himself.

Hatori watched the little performance with a small smirk of amusement. "It seems our cat isn't a morning person."

"Oh believe me, he's mild compared to Yuki. That little Squeaker won't _say _anything, but actions speak louder than words, trust me on that one." Tamiko quipped, her gaze still focused on the now shut bathroom door. "And I have a big feeling Kyo's going to blow his temper in three, two, one..."  
__

_**"What the-?! WHY ARE THERE DOG HAIRS IN THE BATH?! SHIGURE, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" **_Kyo howled from the confines of the bathroom.

Tamiko flinched at his sudden noise and rolled her eyes. "Whoops, looks like I'm the one getting into trouble then."

"I wouldn't bother. Just let Shigure take the fall. It would make a rather nice pay back for him refusing to leave you alone once you two both transformed back, wouldn't it?" Hatori suggested lightly.

Tamiko looked up at him in sudden glee. "Oh dear Hatori, what monster have you become?" she then laughed lightly, and to her delight saw that Hatori let out a small chuckle of good humour. With a small pang of happiness, Tamiko felt as though she'd earned that small chuckle of his.


	14. God's plans and animal's recalls

**Hello all! This is a very cut up chapter, and I do apologise for that. I'm not quite sure if I like this or not...I did whilst writing it but reading it back it seems a bit lacking in something, I'm not quite sure what. But I have to promise to you all, the next chapter will have Haru in it! Totally and completely, HaruHaruHaru, I assure you! And, just out of interest from a review I got for the last chapter, if you were to ship either of my pairings, which one would it be and why? Tamii/Haru or Tamii/Haa'ri? If any of you review this chapter, I'd love to know your opinion on it!  
Thanks again!  
Kes~**

*******

That same morning, the Main Sohma household was in a state of great disarray. The sound of smashing glasses and china heralded the arrival of one of Akito's infamous tempers that every servant or member of the family feared. The servants themselves were rushing around in blind attempts to set right the destruction the head of the family had wrought upon the house, to no apparent success. The furious man was, as of then, in 'his' room, where he was taking his rage out on any piece of furniture or fragile object that his manic eyes strayed to. When the third innocent vase was kicked against the opposite wall, where it shattered into a thousand tiny coloured pieces, the door to the room was shoved roughly aside and an extremely flustered looking Kureno came hurtling in. He'd only just been informed by the servants after arriving back from a walk he'd been on around the compound, and he was beyond terrified at the prospect of what would greet him now.

"Akito, what are you doing?! You're going to hurt yourself!" he yelled almost desperately, looking in absolute horror at the scene he was met with.

Akito was stood in the middle of a completely wrecked room, his head hung low and a part of his robe draping off an incredibly thin shoulder, and as he looked around himself at the mess he himself had made Kureno could see a tiny ounce of regret hidden inside him. His eyes wandered downwards. Akito had been barefoot- it hardly surprised Kureno, he always was- but from the smashing and breaking he'd been doing, his feet were stained scarlet with his own blood after he had evidently stepped on some of the many shards that littered the room like glitter. So too, were his hands; he had been trying to make himself feel pain, Kureno then realised. But why? Who had upset him so much that he would even consider hurting himself for it in his anger and rage? He got his answer soon enough, however, for Akito suddenly jerked his head upright to regard Kureno through crazed and maddened eyes. "Is she here?" he asked in a quavering voice, something Kureno was not all the while used to hear coming from him.

"Who?" He hastened to ask, though he was quite sure he already knew the answer.

"_**Her! The one who I was told to get rid of! Her, her, HER!!**_" Akito yelled in a voice like a wounded child, and with that he flung himself to his knees, falling at the same time in the mass of broken pots and glass beneath him.

Kureno instantly flung himself into the room to assist him, trying his best not to harm himself on the shards. Yeah, he'd guessed correctly. That _her_ was the Mimicker. "Hey, c'mon, it's okay." He said, crouching down himself and cradling Akito like a child against his chest. "She's not here, she's gone now."

"No!" Akito tried to struggle away from Kureno's grip, but the other man held him fast. "No, she won't go! She's like a poison, like a _cancer, _she'll come back again and again! She won't leave, she won't! She never will!"

"Ssshhh, ssshhh...." Kureno whispered softly, rocking back and forth on his haunches with the slowly relaxing Akito in his arms. "It's okay." He then noticed, to his utmost surprise, that tears were rolling down the face of the other man he held so tenderly.

"I'll get rid of her. I'll find a way to make her leave for good." Akito muttered to himself savagely, clutching at Kureno's clothing so tightly the other man felt like he would choke if he didn't loosen his hold. "And I know better than all people what weaknesses she harbours deep in that heart of hers." And by the sound of his voice, Kureno didn't like any of the potential ideas he had orbiting his mind. He sighed gently as he continued to cradle the now steadily breathing God of the zodiac, and remembered back to when he had first met the Mimicker as a young child.

~*~

_Kureno was a tender eight year old. He was stood on the front lawn of the Horse of the Zodiac at that time's home, Hotaka, along with his three older cousins. Shigure, Ayame and Hatori were nine, and although the age gap between them wasn't all that large, Kureno felt like he was a world apart from them. The trio were so confident and exciting that they would never really hang around with him unless told to do so by their parents. Hotaka however doted upon all of them, and didn't favour any of them in Kureno's opinion. To the children, the 29 year old Horse was one of the nicer of the adults. He treated them like people, and knew they understood things just as much as adults did. Ayame envied his long stormy grey hair that fell down to his waist, and Shigure liked the typical animated personality of the Horse of the zodiac, especially his taste for trouble. Hatori admired the man in other ways, but most of the current Sohma children practically worshipped him. And it was here, where they stood talking amongst themselves with Hotaka chuckling along with amusement, where they all met the Mimicker for the first time.  
_

_"Ayame, you loser, that's so stupid! Of course that's not right!"  
_

_"You shut up, mongrel, you're just as stupid!"  
_

_"You're both idiots." Hatori said resignedly, sighing. "You should have known better than to think that girls had cooties. It's never been proven that they do."  
_

_Hotaka watched the three boys with soft brown eyes, resting his head on his hand idly. "Well give the two of them their due, Hatori. They haven't seen any women bar their mothers around here, so it's only natural for them to be curious." He winked at the three of them. "Though how they have managed to mature in that sense so quickly is news to me."  
_

_Hatori smiled lightly. "You're telling me."  
_

_"Oh shut up, Haa'ri!" Shigure piped up indignantly, his hair a mess of black. "You act like you're really old or something! You're the same age as us!"  
_

_"It's because he's such an amazing person of course, Shigure!" Ayame added, something that made Hatori make such a disgusted face that Hotaka laughed again.  
_

_"Man, if I was your age I would love to be your friends, you know that right?" he said with good humour, chuckling again. Suddenly though, he seemed to sober, and turned his head to the right. The laughter died from his face, and his eyes lot their light for a short while. The children weren't used to seeing him in such a serious mood, so followed his eye line with their own wide ones.  
_

_It was Ren. There was no mistaking that raven-black hair that fell down past her waist and the weakened pallor to her skin. She was in her usual black dress, and was stood talking to one of the older servants; older in the sense that she was wrinkled like an old piece of fruit, as Ayame often put it somewhat cruelly. Today, there was another person amongst them. It was a child of about the boy's age with purple hair and their head bowed down in an act of respect or grief, it was unclear which. The argument that was ensuing was one that evidently made Hotaka's stomach churn.  
_

_"What do you want to do with the body? We will get it removed, but where shall we bury it?"  
_

_"Dump it in a ditch for all I care. The Kasai family don't deserve to have their precious body back; they deserve nothing. The ones who knew the letch have probably already passed on themselves so there will be no one to grieve for her."  
_

_The old servant made a quiet noise of agreement, then looked down at the child. "And what about this one? What shall we do with her?"  
_

_Ren wrinkled her nose in distaste as she stared down at the child. "I don't want it. And I don't think Akira will either. A Kasai knocking around the place would only make it look untidy. He only let them stay because he favoured the mother. He didn't care much for the offspring."  
_

_The reaction of the child was one so sudden and harsh it took the watchers by surprise. They lunged forwards towards Ren and growled at her almost inhumanly, like an angry wolf cornered by hunters. "You shut up about my mother! You have no right to talk about her like that, you jumped up bitch! You were nothing before you sidled up to Akira, you were one of us!" the child spat, and now the group recognised her as being a girl. That surprised them even more. Everyone had a small amount of respect for Ren, and even if they thought ill of her they would keep it contained inside and not shout it in her face like this child was. She was bold, Kureno thought as she stared at her. Another thing that was noticed now was that she wasn't using her hands at all, and the reason for this was because they were tied behind her somewhat like a slave. A child so young in her lifetime was being tied up like some kind of savage wild animal? It was wrong. _

_Especially when Ren, in retaliation, struck her around the face so sharply it seemed to knock the wind out of her. "Don't you dare even tarnish my beloved's name by speaking it! You should be alongside your mother in the dirt! Your curse is __**nothing **__compared to what mine has to endure!"  
_

_Once the girl had gotten her breath back, she snapped, "It is by no means __**your**__ family, Ren. My mother told me you did this just because you wanted power! How are you going to deal with your child, will you beat him too?!"  
_

_"You will be quiet now and respect your superiors!" Ren screeched at her, smacking her so hard the rope tied around her wrists was yanked free from the older servant's grasp, and the girl fell face first onto the ground with no mercy to the force.  
_

_That single movement seemed to spur Hotaka into action, for without saying a word he rose from his seat and was beside the small group in a flash, his eyes narrowing at Ren whilst he crouched down to look the child over. The other children just stood and watched with wondering eyes. Hotaka was a hero, that much wasn't ever debated, but even he had never intervened in anything that looked so heated, especially when Ren was involved. "That's enough." He said in a voice that didn't suit him; it was full of a commanding kind of power that made the children shrink away from him. "You have ruined this young soul as much as I'll let you. Either of you." He said pointedly, looking from Ren to the servant. He ignored the angry exclamations of Ren, then looked down at the child and lifted her face up to face him, a soft look stealing over him. "Hello. Don't worry, you won't get hit again."  
_

_The child looked up at him, and from where the boys were standing her mouth opened to mutter a few words to him, though they weren't caught. He smiled and nodded before lifting her up and retreating from the remaining two. When he met the others, the boys all looked expectantly at the girl with the same intrigue as if she were a newborn puppy in the arms of the zodiac's Horse. She glared back at them defensively.  
_

_"What are you all looking at?" she questioned, sticking her tongue out at them all before wriggling free of Hotaka's grip.  
_

_Shigure feigned a look of puzzlement. "I thought...I was looking at a girl... but she talks like a boy!"  
_

_"Yes, she does, doesn't she?" Ayame cut in brightly. "I heard you talking to Ren! It takes a lot of guts to do that, and you're a girl so that deserves extra merit!"  
_

_She frowned at them all as Hotaka brandished a pen knife from his pocket to work at the ropes tying her hands together. "What does my gender have to do with being brave and telling the truth?"  
_

_"It doesn't, they're just being crude." Hatori cut in, peering at her closely. He seemed to take the most interest in her out of all of them, Kureno noticed. "What's your name?"  
_

_That was the most obvious question to ask the girl, and yet only Hatori had thought of asking it. The girl stared at him as though he was the only one there. "My...name?"  
_

_"Yes. You have a name, don't you?" Hatori asked quietly, his slightly shyer side beginning to take over.  
_

_She seemed to mull this over before replying. "My name's Tamiko Kasai." She looked him up and down as though sizing him up as she then added, "You are the dragon, aren't you?"  
_

_Hatori blinked at her. "H-how do you know?"  
_

_"I can just tell." She looked around at the other boys surrounding her. "You are the Dog, you are the Snake, and you are the Bird." She said, pointing at Shigure, Ayame and Kureno in turn. Whilst the boys were too shocked to reply, she turned around to look upon the face of her rescuer. "And you are the Horse. I can show you." With that, she flung her arms around Hotaka's neck and a cloud of smoke engulfed the both of them. Once it was clear, in its place was a proud looking dappled grey stallion, and a gun smoke coloured foal with legs twice the size of its body.  
_

_"Wow." Shigure said with wonder clear in his expression and voice. The children had seen Hotaka's horse form before, granted, but they were always in great awe of what a 'grown up' animal looked like. So far they were only turning into the baby counterparts of their forms, and the girl was no exception. She struggled to stand up and wobbled lightly, crashing into the child nearest her. With another sudden 'poof' the foal was gone and in its place was a tiny black snake the thickness of string, along with a similar shaped white one.  
_

_"Yuck, worms!" Shigure faked a look of disgust and mimed stamping on them.  
_

_"Don't stand on your best friend, comrade!" Ayame cried in horror, and wriggled as quickly as he could away from the black haired boy's rather threatening looking foot that, moments before, had been hovering over him. Kureno's bird instinct, though, had unfortunately taken over, and Hotaka was forced to stand himself in between the two transformed snakes in a futile attempt to stop the young boy from diving at them. Although, with so many pounds of horseflesh and heavy hooves blocking his way, Kureno knew better than to try anything on. The black snake let out a soft little sigh and slithered away from Hotaka's defensive posture. Little did she know that she was being watched; that is, not until she was picked up by her tail by the watcher in question.  
_

_"Leggo!" she cried, writhing and twisting in mid air as she was lifted up.  
_

_"Don't squirm, I won't eat you like bird boy." The boy said, as though he were somewhat offended at her fear. She continued to wriggle regardless of his words, and Shigure made a face. "Stop it, we're not gonna hurt you."  
_

_"Everyone hurts a Mimicker! I didn't mean to show you if you were going to get angry at me!" she hissed desperately.  
_

_"We weren't angry, just surprised." Hatori cut in, taking the frightened snake from Shigure's grip as his friend scrambled to find Ayame under the forest of hooves. "Don't judge people before you know them. It could lose you friends."  
_

_The little Tamiko snake relaxed a little when Hatori took her, and moved into the centre of his palm. "Are you a friend?"  
_

_The question was unexpected, so it took Hatori a while to reply. "...Of course, if you want us to be friends."  
_

_"And what about those?" she pointed with her tail to the frantically yelling Shigure who was trying to reach Ayame without treading on him, Hotaka who was still trying to fend Kureno off with his elegant ears back in anger and irritation, and Ayame himself who was equally trying to avoid Shigure's footfalls. "Could they be my friends too?"  
_

_Hatori followed her gaze and laughed. "Are you sure you'd want them to be your friends?"  
_

_The snake nodded, and without warning she turned back into her normal self, instantly shooting off to hide her nakedness from the strange boys around her. She did however, call back over her shoulder, "Yes I __would!!"  
_

_Hatori was left in the ruckus of two sudden retransformations and the usual scurrying for clothes that happened every time afterwards with a thoughtful expression. "A Mimicker for a friend. Sounds fun."_

~*~

"Ahh, those were the times, huh Haa'ri?"

"If you say so."

"Oh, I do say so."

The two men were sat at Shigure's desk in his study, both with steaming cups of coffee and cigarettes dangling out of their mouths. After they had bid farewell to Tamiko, Tohru, Yuki and Kyo, they had retired to Shigure's study for Shigure's favourite hobby- procrastinating. Hatori needed to be back at the Sohma compound but he couldn't bring himself to move out of a rare bout of laziness. Shigure needed to write, but as per usual was finding any opportunity possible to _not_ do so. Keeping the doctor in his house and chatting seemed to be his best bet. For a good few hours, Hatori had been content to sit and read as Shigure got on with his writing, to the Dog's complete dismay, but after a while Hatori put down the book with a 'huff' of revulsion as it reached the more erotic parts and gone to make them drinks, along with bringing out a packet of cigarettes. Shigure was more of a social smoker; or more accurately put, a Hatori in company smoker. It was his cousin who had introduced him to the things way back when they were in high school, and unlike Hatori Shigure didn't take to them quite as easily. This meant that he could just pick up the habit and turn it away again when he pleased. And as they had sat, smoking and drinking all manners of drinks including small amounts of alcohol, the talk had soon moved onto old times. Particularly in the direction of Tamiko, who according to Hatori was the hot gossip in the compound as well as in the current house.

Leaning back in his seat and taking a deep drag on his cigarette, Hatori remarked, "Did you stand on Ayame in the end? I forget."

Shigure looked a little sheepish. "Er, yes. He had a badly bruised ankle for a while, he walked with a limp for weeks."

"Ah yeah." Hatori didn't seem all that concerned about his other cousin's welfare, but he knew his father had probably patched him up and sent him on his way. That was the first time they met Tamiko, as that all too clever and witty nine year old with boundless problems, one of which was knowing when to keep her mouth shut. He sighed. She never learnt that manner. "She stayed with him, didn't she? For a while anyway. Hotaka."

Shigure nodded knowingly. "Yup. He was a good guy, I can remember crying my little heart out when he died. Tamiko practically worshipped him- she even started calling him 'father' didn't she? She was the worst hit than all of us."

"Yeah..." Hatori frowned. "I can't remember you doing that, though. From what I can recall you cried for a few minutes, asked if he'd left you any money, then cried even harder when you realised he didn't."

"Hey, I was seventeen at the time. Showing any inner emotion would have been uncool."

"Right." Hatori rolled his eyes and stubbed out the remainder of his cigarette, taking instead the cup of coffee and dragging it towards him slowly with both hands. "I think we were all upset when he died. Ren told everyone it was a botched up mugging. I don't believe that for a second. Hotaka was the Horse; he was flighty like one too, he would have been able to pinpoint anyone moving behind him."

"Ooh, is this a conspiracy theory I hear coming from my dear Hatori's mouth?" Shigure cooed, putting his cup down and looking at his friend with earnest.

"Shut up, you know full well I'm not insinuating a thing. I just think it's odd, that's all." He half- smiled. "Still, if it weren't for him we would have never met Tamiko."

Shigure's eyes seemed to mist over at her mention. "Yes, our little darling Tamiko, the poison ivy of the group. And so began a beautiful friendship, right Haa'ri?" He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at the Dragon who gave him the filthiest look known to man and turned his head away.

"Yes. A friendship. And if it weren't for your overlarge gob it would have worked for far longer than it had done."

"Aw, don't get sore at me Haa'ri. You know full well that someone was bound to have found out some way or another."

"That's not the point." Hatori rose from his seat and picked up the now half-empty packet of cigarettes. "I should go and let you get on with your writing. I'm sure your editor would die and go to heaven if she found that you handed something in on a deadline."

Shigure's face seemed to drain of all colour. "Hatori, that's not fair! You know I don't want to write now, we were having fun!"

"We were until you started to talk about tender subjects I'd rather not speak about in here unless Tamiko was present too. And if you don't want to write then why become a writer in the first place?" Hatori asked, turning and walking out of the room.

"Because I wanted to make a difference to the literature of the world!" Shigure called out after him.

After a few seconds a disembodied voice called back, "The truth, Shigure."

"What? That's why I started writing!"

"_Shigure."_

"Okay fine, the editor I got first was hot! And I wanted an excuse to write erotic scenes."

Hatori smirked as he moved down the hallway towards the door, leaving the Dog alone to his own devices. "See, you really are getting the hang of this honesty lark, eventually."


	15. Psychics and equines

**A/N: Wow, again this took quite a while, and I'm sorry. I'm still not totally happy with it, but I hope it makes sense seeing as some of it was written very late at night when I had a headache xD So I apologise in advance for any typos that might have been made. I seriously need to get me a beta to read through this...  
Anyways, I left this on a bit of a cliffhanger so it'll motivate me to get to work on the next chapter with any luck. C'monnn, Tamiko can't like everyone, can she? Haha, enjoy, and reviews would be appreciated!  
Kes x**

"Hey, Tamiko."

"Earth to Tamiko world?"

"Huh?" Tamiko blinked as her name was mentioned and lifted her head lazily to gaze up at the two boys who were looking down at her with mixed expressions; one of irritation and one of confusion. She looked equally as blankly up at them until Kyo said again, "Are you deaf or something? Move!"

"Why?" she asked plainly, still a little out of it.

"Because class is over, Miss Kasai. It finished ten minutes ago." Yuki said gently, his eyes beginning to look worried.

"Oh, okay." Tamiko let out a wide yawn, something that resembled that of a lioness's, and rose from her seat, beginning to gather her things together. "I didn't realise, I'm sorry."

"No need to apologise. Are you okay, Tamiko?" Yuki asked, helping her pack away as Kyo stood and watched. "You were completely fazed out back there. I thought you were going to fall asleep at one point. I guess you did..."

She nodded slowly and swung a bag over her shoulder. It was one she'd borrowed from Tohru, and the pink patterning wasn't something she would have exactly chosen herself but it did the job of carting all her books around. She'd forgotten how heavy those things could get. "I did fall asleep a little, yeah. I just didn't have much sleep last night. Whatever sleep I did get was so broken you could use it to pave a road."  
She raised a hand to her forehead and massaged her angrily throbbing temples. The boys didn't know where she'd been; she hadn't bothered them with retelling how she had slept outside for the most of the night before Tohru had wandered out to see her. She couldn't really remember when she'd reached the place she had fallen; she supposed it would have had to have been late, because it was still dark and the stars had been winking down at her from their places in the sky, not wanting to disappear just yet. And then the next thing she had known, Tohru had been calling frantically to wake her and Shigure was stood over her. Unfortunately though, she had had no sleep since, and as a result her 'school work' was suffering.

"You finished mucking around now?" Kyo called out impatiently. Tamiko nodded silently and watched as the ginger haired boy walked out of the door. He paused for a minute, then called back over his shoulder, "Hey, you have your biggest fan here, Tamiko."

She looked confused for a moment, then she realised. _Biggest fan. _That was bound to be Hatsuharu. And sure enough, once she'd got out of the doorway, there he was, leant against the opposite wall with the familiar look of utter calmness about him. "Heya Haru, how's it going?" she said, mimicking his posture and looking up at him.

He cocked an eyebrow at her and let a small smile creep onto his face. "It's going alright. How about you?" Before she could answer, he added, "I heard about this morning, too. Hatori told me before I got to school. Has he given you the same pep talk as he did me?"

Tamiko scoffed. "I am a responsible adult that he's known since he was nine years old. Of course he told me to leave you be, or at least be careful."

"So, are you?" he asked with a genuine tone of curiosity.

"Do you want me to?" she shot back.

He opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off when Yuki walked towards them. "We're going to pick up Miss Honda from her class then go to the field to sit, seeing as it's such a nice day." the other boy explained to them.

"We'll go on ahead. Meet you there, yeah?" Tamiko flicked her wrist at Yuki in a replica of a farewell wave and made to walk away, but found her wrist encircled in a gentle grip. She frowned and looked down. "Haru." She stated simply. All of this sudden needy contact she was getting from him was something she wasn't altogether used to, and she was sure it wouldn't go unnoticed by the others. She didn't really care, they could think what they wanted, but all the same it felt...weird. She knew Hatsuharu was a little clingy at times, but it didn't irritate her at all. On the contrary, she found it quite cute. He didn't say anything in response, just walked closer to her and kept hold of her wrist.

"You could have warned me that we were going to move." He said lightly as they set off in the direction of the outdoors.

"I thought you would have been able to figure it out for yourself." She replied cheekily, chuckling to show she was joking. She noticed the wondrous stares of the other students as they walked past them, and she guessed it was due to the fact that the two of them were virtually holding hands. She chuckled again, wryly. Hatsuharu looked down at her questioningly. "You do realise they're all going to think you're gay now, right?" she said between her chuckles.

"Why?" he asked, frowning. She looked down at their connection, and then back at him to help him get the message. To her surprise though, his face remained unconcerned. "Never mind. I don't particularly care. At least it would stop them harassing me."

"You get harassed?" she inquired, raising an eyebrow of her own. "Aww, you poor thing. I better start protecting you then, eh?"At her words, she reached up and flicked a few strands of his white hair affectionately. He jerked his head out of the way and removed his hand from her wrist to ruffle hers. "Oi! That was uncalled for!" she said, scandalised as Hatsuharu just smiled at her. It was a simple smile, one that would have been a normal sight on one of the others like Momiji or Yuki, but seeing as Hatsuharu was usually so quiet and blank it was nice to see him have one. Tamiko grinned in reply and after pushing the door open stepped out into the sunlight, blinking in its sudden appearance. "Wow, Yuki was right, it really is nice today."

"You didn't notice on the way to school?" Hatsuharu teased, mocking her for her question to him before as they made their way out towards the nearest corner of the field. It was their usual haunt, somewhere where Tohru and her friends had made their own before they had been joined by the Sohma family.

"Oh haha." Tamiko said sarcastically. "I wasn't really interested in the weather today, if I'm honest. I was more interested in getting into school without falling to the floor sleeping, or lounging on one of the others to power nap."

Hatsuharu seemed to consider this point. "Fair dues." He finished, with another small smile. Tohru's friends were already there, and waved to them as they approached. Tamiko hadn't really met either of them before, but she was certain she'd seen the ash blonde haired girl before. She did agree with Kyo's affectionate dubbing of 'the Yankee and the Psychic' because they did seem to match those stereotypes perfectly.

"Yo monotone, I didn't know you were dragging along that Yankee."

Tamiko raised an eyebrow. "I'm not a Yankee." She stated simply.

The other girl blinked. "Woah, you're a chick. That's unexpected."

"I'm full of surprises, me." She sat down on the grass and crossed her legs, watching as Hatsuharu followed suit. "You must be Arisa Uotani. It's good to meet you face to face." She remembered during her first day posing as a student Arisa had remarked on her odd appearance somewhat admirably, and she liked that. Someone with a brain that didn't follow the crowd. She liked to keep herself close to people like that. "And for the record, I definitely would join a gang of yours, if you had one."

Arisa stared at her for a little while as though confused as to how this stranger knew so much, then gave her an amused smile. "Same here, purple. You got a name, or is it blowing in the wind?"

"Her name is Tamiko Kasai." Hatsuharu answered for her, earning a scowl from Tamiko's direction. He however looked completely unconcerned and just angled his head to look at her.

"Kasai huh?" Arisa looked thoughtful. "I would've thought you were a Sohma, personally."

"She may have the waves of a Sohma, but her aura is certainly different to theirs." The other girl cut in, someone far shorter than Arisa with wavy black hair that curled down to her waist. Tamiko knew now why Kyo called her a bit of a freak; there was something about her that was unsettling. Her gaze then settled on Tamiko with an unnerving curiosity. "She does however harbour something deep in her heart and soul that is unknown to most."

"You must be Saki Hanajima. A pleasure." Tamiko greeted politely, but the sudden edge to her voice told Hatsuharu that the younger girl had gotten too close, and it wasn't appreciated. The girl stared back at her with no apparent expression clear on her face, before smiling lightly, however vague it was.

"Surely, it is my pleasure. Please, call me Hana."

"Yeah, and call me Uo. No one's called me Arisa since I was a little kid." Arisa chipped in, leaning back on her palms and looking up at the sky. "Beautiful day, huh?"

"Mmm, it is." Tamiko flopped onto her back and put her arms behind her head to cushion it, breathing in the sweet smell of the grass and the distinct perfumes wafting around from the girls. She'd missed being able to do this; feeling like she didn't have a care except for passing those stupid tests. Being an adult sucked at times. "Hey, it's Tohru and the others!" Uo yelled, and Tamiko could almost sense the wind rippling away from her batting hand. She smiled without sitting up. Yeah, life was good, for the moment.

***

When they arrived back at the house, Tohru immediately began to busy herself with the chores and Yuki made his excuses and retreated to his room, leaving Tamiko and Kyo on their own. Hatsuharu and Momiji had gone home for once, and Tamiko had to admit that it was kinda dull without them. She turned to Kyo, who was following Tohru's progress around the house with his eyes. "Hey, little Ume? When you're quite finished giving Miss Honda the goo-goo eyes, interested in taking a walk?"

Kyo immediately launched to his defence. "I was not giving her any kind of eyes, okay?! I was just making sure she didn't trip up because she's that damn clumsy!"

Tamiko scoffed and ruffled his hair as she passed him, causing another stream of profanities to come escalating out of his mouth. "That's not an answer. Coming?"

"Yeah, whatever." Tamiko flashed him a bright smile and rushed to her room. Once she had changed into the usual attire of jeans and a particularly slobby looking T-shirt, she wandered down the stairs and called his name loudly. "Alright, alright!!" was all she got in reply, making her chuckle. Kyo rushed back down the stairs in his predicted combats and black shirt, and Tamiko wasted no time in bounding out of the door. She had no idea why she was suddenly so needy for the outdoors; she guessed it was something to do with the fact that it was a beautiful day, and it had been squandered by being cooped up inside for lessons that day.

"See you later, Tohru!" she called out, waving over her shoulder as she got out of the door with Kyo in hot pursuit.

"Jeez, what's your issue today? You've never been so eager to get outside before." He grumbled once he reached her.

She shrugged. "I needed out. I guess it's my inner animal calling out." She grinned and set off at a brisk walk, inhaling the fresh air deeply. "Mmm, it's such a nice day today."

Kyo rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"What, you don't think it is?"

"I think it's stupid to get so worked up over the weather."

"Says the person who gets drowsy and horrid to be around when it's raining."

"Hey, that's different and you know it!"

She chuckled and kicked the dry path with her trainer, sending specks of debris in front of her. Kyo really was so easy to wind up. He was like a fiercely coiled firecracker; with one comment she could let him go and he'd spring into explosive action. She wondered if that was customary for the Cats of the zodiac. She'd never had the pleasure to meet the previous one; Hotaka had always told her not to stray that far into the compound out of fear for what Ren or Akito would do if they found her. She had heard from Kazuma however that the Cat had been his grandfather, and that he'd regretted being so harsh and prejudiced towards him. She frowned despite herself. Even families discriminated each other, it seemed. "Kyo?" she asked finally, after the silence had gone on for a good few minutes.

The boy looked at her, and knowing by the fact that she hadn't used her nickname for him that something philosophical was going to spill out of her mouth now. "What?"

"Do you ever feel trapped?"

He gave her a curious look. "Er, well I guess I do sometimes, yeah." He wondered if she knew about what he was fated to have happen to him once he reached eighteen. He hated to think about it; it was like an impending doom that hung over his head like a little black raincloud.

She looked dubious at his response. "I wonder if even free people feel trapped sometimes." She looked up at the sky. "I was born a servant to your family, and yet I feel more enslaved now than I ever did back then. I didn't exactly do anything I guess. I just followed my mother around the place and hoped I didn't get stepped on." She looked thoughtful. "Now...it seems like there are a lot more restrictions on me than before. Akito would go spare if he knew I'd stepped foot on the Sohma compound, and I've been told to leave some of you guys alone for your own safety. I think they don't realise that even though I look like it, I'm not a teenager any more. I know what I'm doing."

"Well, they're stupid if they think you're going to listen to them. You're so stubborn you won't take any advice handed to you, will you?" Kyo said, looking down at the ground as they continued to walk.

"Not unless it's from a good enough source, I suppose." She thought aloud, and shook herself. "Anyway, enough about me. How about you?"

"Huh?"

"You. What have you been feeling lately, anything happen to you?"

He closed his eyes and turned himself away from her. "I don't talk to anyone about my problems."

"Oh, so you have problems?"

_D'oh. Open mouth, insert mouth..._ "No! I was just saying!"

"How's the thing with Tohru going on?"

"Nothing's going on, okay?! Drop that stupid subject and think of something else to taunt me about!"

"Aww, but this one's the most fun." Just before Kyo sprang for her in rage, something caught her eye on the horizon. It was distinctly equine in shape, and as she watched the form began to move towards them with gathering speed. "Huh, there's a horse charging at us." She observed.

"What are you talking about, horse? There are no farms or stables for miles arou-_**did you just say charging?!**_" Kyo snapped, immediately following her gaze.

And sure enough, it was. It tumbled towards them a little clumsily as though it was trying to regain a foothold, and its long mane flowed backwards in the wind as it galloped. It held its head proudly as it ran and plunged towards them in a perfect rendition of a rocking horse pace, something Tamiko had never perfected in her mimicked form. It was a solid black animal with no white points on the rest of its body, and Tamiko soon realised who it was. After all, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.

"One of the zodiac." She muttered. The whole fact of it being a horse took her back to the days when Hotaka was still alive, and she felt a familiar tear at her chest from the loss she'd felt when he'd been killed. He'd been so good to her, taking her in when no one else would and raising her as if she were his own daughter, knowing the consequences...she shuddered. Stupid zodiac. Stupid horse. She missed Hotaka. Why did the Horse have to show up just to make her remember him, the only man she'd ever called 'father'? And she wasn't stupid, for she knew just who it was. Isuzu Sohma, or most commonly known, Rin. Oh great. What did she want? "Kyo, why don't you go back to the house? I have a feeling Isuzu will want to talk to me alone."

"What-?"

"Since when did you ask questions, little Ume? **_Go._** Go on." Her unnerving gaze in her horse form seemed to do just as much talking as she had, for Kyo turned around and started walking back, albeit reluctantly. She was almost certain that he glanced over his shoulder every now and again as he walked away. It was kind of nice to feel like he cared.

Just before the horse reached her, Tamiko willed herself to change and burst into her own horse form in a puff of smoke, her ears back as the smoke cleared. The black horse was stood inches away from her, and it pawed the ground in such an angry way it gouged holes in the dry soil. Its black eyes were bottomless and merciless, and for a split second Tamiko was unsettled by the horse before her that she knew to be a girl far younger than her. She swung her head from one side to the next with her ears still back, the classic equine attempt to ward away the youngster.

"If you want to speak to people, don't go galloping towards them so recklessly, Isuzu." Tamiko said, stopping her head weaving to regard the other horse through narrowed eyes. "You could get someone hurt."

"You can shut up about hurting people right now!" the other horse snapped in a clearly feminine voice, stomping a hoof into the ground. "You've hurt more people than I've had operations, and you know that's a lot. And never call me Isuzu."

Tamiko jerked her head back and managed to hiss through her teeth. "All part and partial of being a Mimicker. Now cut the niceties. What do you want?"

Isuzu lowered her head and glared at Tamiko, hatred clearly flashing across them. "I want to know just what's going on between you and Hatsuharu."


	16. Disputing Equines

** Author's note: Well, here it is, the next chapter! It literally carries right on from the other chapter, so watch out! Honestly, Tamiko never learns to save her life. I'd like to say thank you to the person who beta'd this for me, Silent-Silver-Neko over on DeviantART. It's much appreciated hun! 3  
Anyway, now that's out of the way, enjoy!  
Kes x**

If Tamiko were human the colour would have drained from her face. "What did you just say?" she almost spat at Isuzu, her ears flicking forwards as if to confirm what they had just heard.

"You heard me. You. Hatsuharu. What's going on?" The other girl sneered, her eyes narrowing as she stomped the ground again.

"I had no idea that you two had something going on. Bully for you, Isuzu." She was being totally honest; she'd never heard Hatsuharu speak about Isuzu in front of her, nor to any of the others, and if they were going out she assumed that he would be gabbling on non-stop about her. It was just in his nature to be like that. And seeing as she hadn't seen him prancing around like a love struck fool there had been no reason to think that he could have a girlfriend. Least of all, her. She couldn't really see them being together; her with such a fiery and wild temper and him with his placid calmness, apart from when he was Black Haru. Now she thought about it, Black Haru and Isuzu would probably compliment each other well.

"It's...we're..." Isuzu seemed to be struggling for words, and Tamiko smirked. She could tell. There had been something going on. They had been an item, at one point. But they weren't anymore. And she wanted to go back to how it was. _Well tough luck sweetie, life's not fair. You only get one chance in this life, and if you squander it, you lose it_, Tamiko thought to herself dryly.

"Ahh, so you're not with Hatsuharu, are you? You got dumped. Or you dumped him. Isn't that right?" Tamiko taunted, flicking her ink black tail out behind her. She felt no guilt for behaving in such a way to a mere teenager; the two had a natural hatred of each other that hadn't only just been brought on. "And for your information, there's nothing between the two of us, so I suggest you use your paranoia for someone else."

"Don't you lie to me, you filthy Mimicker! I know that you knew something was going on!" She half- reared to get her point across, striking at thin air as she dropped back down. "And you still tried to sidle in with him, didn't you?"

Tamiko raised her head high and snorted derisively. "I'll have you know that I have not, at any point, tried to 'sidle in' to Hatsuharu. He is a genuine boy with a good heart, and I think that if what you say is true, then he is wasting his feelings on something like you."

Rin really did rear then; she threw her forelegs out aggressively and Tamiko escaped a very nasty kick in the face. "Don't insult me! It'll be the last thing you ever do!" she screamed, her voice carrying on and merging into a whinny as she thudded back to the ground. "I won't tolerate you bad- mouthing me!"

Tamiko bared her teeth at her and danced nervously on the spot, knowing what was going to come. "Come on then, I know you've wanted to fight with me since you were small. Now you're a big girl. Come and get me, _**Rin**_."

That did it. Isuzu, with a scream of an infuriated mare, launched herself towards Tamiko with her eyes burning liquid fire. Tamiko swung herself out of the other mare's path and sunk her teeth into the raven black flank nearest her. "You bitch!" Isuzu squealed in pain and lashed out with her back legs, missing Tamiko's own legs by inches as she whipped her head around to snap at any part of Tamiko she could reach.

"Don't call me that!" Tamiko cried in reply. She jerked her head out of harms reach, losing her grip on the others flank. Isuzu spun herself around and reared up, her mane flying backwards as her forelegs wind milled in the air. Tamiko did the same, knowing that if she stayed on the ground that she wouldn't face much of a chance in the face of those hooves. She threw her forelegs out at the other horse, thudding her rock- solid hooves into Isuzu's shoulders unmercifully. She felt the younger horse cripple slightly under the impacts rained down on her, but she gave as good as she got, and by the time she was forced to drop back to the ground her shoulders were aching with the blows she'd been dealt by Isuzu.

She dodged out of the way of another bout of biting from Isuzu, but before she could retaliate Isuzu had pivoted around on her hind legs and put her head down. Crap. She knew what was coming. She wasn't quick enough to get away, and the kick she was dealt with rattled her ribcage as she stepped backwards with the impact. Her whole world seemed to spin, and she was forced to take another step back to try to regain her place on the earth. Then another kick was received, and then another. She half reared in an attempt to block the onslaught, but doing so did nothing. She lunged at the other horse and hit her forelegs square into the others stomach in her fury, and she heard some of the air whistle out of Isuzu's lungs with pleasure.

"Tamiko! Rin!" The two warring horses paid no attention to the voices, and continued to kick out at each other. It was only until Tamiko's head was wrenched to one side by the speaker that their focus shifted in the slightest.

"Let go of me, Shigure!" Tamiko yelled, rearing again to get free of the dog's grip.

"No, you have to stop this!" Shigure yelled back, grabbing hold of her short mane and gripping it tightly. Now the veil of red had lifted from her vision, she could see that Isuzu was being stopped too, by Yuki and Kyo, both of whom were panting in their efforts to hold her back. "Isuzu, get out of here." He ordered in a voice that was unnervingly serious.

The black horse tossed her head and pawed the ground, gouging yet more holes in the earth. "If anything is going on, believe me Tamiko, I will find out. And I will come back and finish you."

"You talk big Isuzu, but you can't match it with brawn!" Tamiko snapped, taking a step forwards. "Your paranoia will be the death of you one day! He was lucky to see sense!"

"Tamiko, enough!" Shigure shouted, giving her a hefty shove backwards as he saw Isuzu's blood plainly boiling. "Back to the house, go on. Go!" Tamiko flicked her tail at him and broke into a severely disjointed trot as she felt a stabbing pain shoot up one of her forelegs. She almost buckled under the sudden pain, but kept herself firm to save Isuzu the satisfaction of watching what she'd done to her. Kyo however had noticed, and watched with slightly concerned eyes as she got past him. She ignored him. Once she got out of sight of the others, she abandoned all pretence and transformed back into her human form. She swore loudly as she felt all the injuries from her fight transform with her, and she could feel the bruises from Isuzu's kicks throbbing nastily underneath her top. She cradled her injured arm and walked back to the house slowly, wobbling every now and again as she kept her balance steady.

Tohru was panicky as ever when she arrived back. "Oh my goodness, your arm! Are you okay, Shigure said he heard you fighting, who were you fighting with?" she gabbled, spilling all of her thoughts out in typical Tohru fashion that would have made Tamiko grin if she hadn't been in so much pain.

"I'll be fine Tohru, just a bit of a sleep and I'll be fine and dandy."

"You shouldn't fight, it'll get you hurt!"

"I know. I can't help myself. It's my defence mechanism." Tamiko shrugged and looked down at her arm, grimacing.

"No you won't be okay! You need a doctor!" Tohru said, rushing over to her.

Tamiko let a soft whimper escape her throat and took a step back. "No...I don't want a doctor..." The truth was, she did want a doctor, but she knew who they would call. And she didn't really want to sit there explaining to Hatori how she had gotten into a fight with an _actual _eighteen year old whilst he bandaged her up and made everything better. She'd been able to fend for herself before now, she could do it again if need be. She was one of those bruiser children who would always wander home from an outing or school run with cuts and bruises, it was just the way she was she supposed. Although granted, this time was a bit different to cuts and bruises...  
__

_**"You idiot!" **_She flinched at the loud shouting behind her and she turned around hesitantly. Kyo was stood in the doorway, clearly seething. She rolled her eyes. Oh, great. Was she going to get a lecture from the kid who worshipped her now?

"Leave me alone, Kyo."

"You can't just shrug off what just happened! I saw you, you were limping! And you and Rin were attacking each other like things possessed, what the hell did you two do to piss each other off that much?!" he yelled at her, shaking with rage.

"There's nothing to talk about. I'd prefer to keep our argument between Isuzu and I."

Her simple answers seemed to be riling Kyo even more, for he then yelled at an even greater volume, "Of course there is, you idiot! Don't you get that someone wants to help you, just let them!"

"And you can help me how exactly?" she rounded on him then, eyes blazing. "Are you a doctor? Are you a psychiatrist? No. You're a teenage boy whose hormones are running crazy, so I suggest you shut up right now!" She didn't see the slap coming until it was dealt right across her face. She groaned in annoyance at the stinging pain that followed and glared at Kyo out of the corner of her eye. He was stood panting a few centimetres away from her, anger clearly etched in his face. Her pupils suddenly dilated. "Don't you _ever_ raise your hand to me again." She hissed in a voice that was so unlike her she felt the air in the room freeze. Even Kyo hesitated, bewilderment in his eyes.

"You..."

She shut her eyes tightly, trying to ignore the powerful anger that was threatening to consume her. "Just...leave me alone...please...I'm hurting..." she managed to say through the gaps in her teeth as she clenched them. She staggered out of the room as quickly as she could manage and up the stairs, hoping to dear God no one else had seen but Kyo. It had been a moment of weakness, nothing more... though she knew the boy had seen her irises flood and glow like the flames of a reignited ice fire.

She had barely had time to slump on her bed and feel sorry for herself, when the phone rang. She let out a muffled cry of annoyance, and after no one decided to go and get it struggled towards the nearest cradle where a phone was and grabbed for it lazily. She had no idea who it was, but whoever it was their call wasn't wanted. "F'off, m' dyin'."

"Is that you Tamiko?" Her eyes opened a little wider when she heard _his_ voice down the phone. The very person she'd been fighting over, for reasons unknown to her. No. She'd been fighting because Isuzu had started it. _**Isuzu**_, nothing else. Just her.

Shaking that thought away, she leant against the nearest wall with a tired grunt. "Haru, that you?"

"I asked first."

She huffed. She wasn't in the mood to play his games. "It's me."

"Then I'm Haru."

"Seriously, stop screwing my mind up." She scolded.

There was a pause at the other end of the line. "Sorry. Rin just came back. She's covered in bruises and bites, ranting about you. What did you two do to each other?"

She couldn't translate his feelings from just his voice; she thought it was something in between concern and anger. "Look, I didn't mean to rough up your girlfriend, okay? It was a knee jerk reaction and I snapped." She muttered, lowering her eyes to the ground in a meek position even though he couldn't see it.

"Are you as hurt as she is?"

She hesitated. "Er..."

"Tamiko. Tell me."

"Okay, so what if I am? I can handle it."

"No you can't. I'll get Hatori to come over, and I'm coming with him to see how you are." His voice became a little gentler as he added, "Rin isn't my girlfriend. She was the one who called our relationship off. She told me that she was tired of me and she didn't want to see me again. So I've obeyed her. I'm over her now. What I'm more worried about is why the two of you were fighting."

She sighed and sunk lower along the wall. Why did she feel so relieved all of a sudden? "No one could get tired of you, Haru, trust me on that one. So don't listen to what she has to say." She said equally as softly. "And... what we were fighting about doesn't matter."

"It obviously matters enough that you fought about it."

She sighed and rubbed a hand against her temples. Thinking too much was making her brain ache and throb like it had been kicked. "Knock it off? Please? I've had a very long day and I just want to get better and sleep."

There was another silent spell. "Tamiko, how hurt are you?" Came a slightly smaller voice. Almost instantly, Hatsuharu had been transformed back into that caring little boy Tamiko remembered. She could almost see his small six year old face looking up at her with large eyes the colour of pebbles, asking if she was alright and if she wanted to walk with him... he really was ahead of his time.

She swallowed painfully as she felt the first beginnings of an ache from her wounded arm. "I'm not sure. I'm not a doctor. My...my arm's hurting... she kicked at it..."

"Rin did? In her horse form?" She heard the sudden edge to his voice and she hurriedly covered it up.

"Yes, but I gave as good as I got! I bit and kicked just as much as she did!" She wasn't defending Isuzu, far from it- she just knew that tone very well from before, and knew that Black Haru was writhing underneath White Haru's exterior.

"I'm coming over. And so is Hatori." The line went dead, and she cringed. Oh great.

~*~

She didn't have long to wait, unfortunately. The others had got back from talking with Isuzu and were regarding her through eyes that clearly said they thought she was going to strike out at them if she said a word. She wasn't surprised if she looked like that; she goddamn felt it, especially towards Shigure for breaking them apart. The main door was suddenly slid to, and Hatsuharu rushed in like a thing possessed. She gaped as she saw the rings around his eyes that screamed 'Black Haru!' at her, and took a step backwards. She wasn't afraid of him, but she really didn't want to jolt her arm any more than she needed to."Haru...hey."

He walked over to her without any comment to the others and glowered at her. She moulded her expression to match. "You're such a damn idiot, Mimicker! Getting yourself into a fight would only get you hurt, don't you get that?!"

"Hey, don't get involved you thick Ox!" Kyo suddenly yelled, rising from the dinner table and glaring at him. Amid the quiet pleads from Tohru for him to stop, Hatsuharu spun around and fixed Kyo with a look of pure thunder.

"Now who's getting involved you stupid cat! It's got nothing to do with you!!"

"It doesn't have anything to do with _**you**_!!"

Shigure sighed happily. "Oh, isn't it lovely Tamiko? To have two handsome boys arguing over you, it's does my old heart good to see it."

"SHUT UP!" The three of them shouted collectively at him. Shigure flinched under the pressure. It was then that Hatori arrived with his doctor's kit in tow, looking immensely drained from the sudden turn the day had taken. Tamiko almost felt guilty for dragging him out here, but then realised that it had been Hatsuharu and not her who had done so.

"I'm sorry for calling at such a time, but Hatsuharu shepherded me out of my house the moment he came off the phone to Tamiko. I assumed that her injuries were bad. I've looked after Rin and she seems to be doing okay." He looked over at her and she noticed his eye fall to the awkward way she was holding her arm. She half smiled; she knew that he would figure out what was wrong simply by looking at it. He was good, in that respect.

Whilst this had been going on, Hatsuharu and Kyo had been arguing and getting more and more annoyed until Kyo finally exploded. "Fine, you want to make something of it you stupid Ox then come and get me!" Kyo yelled, holding his arms out either side of his body. "But it won't help the fact that you're worried about Tamiko just as much as everyone else in this house is!!"

His words seemed to stop Hatsuharu in his tracks. He glared at him, but made no move to advance. Tamiko head butted him softly at the back of his shoulders and muttered, "Stop it. I don't need to be worried about so much."

"I'll care just the right amount." His voice was softer now, and she felt a sense of relief wash over her. White Haru was back. "You're my friend. I'll worry."

Hatori watched the whole event unfold, and then motioned with his head up the stairs. He had the same expressionless mask he usually had on again, and Tamiko sighed lightly. "It'll be easier if I treat you in your room. Sometimes the anaesthetic I use can make you drowsy afterwards." He said shortly.

Tamiko nodded reluctantly and made to walk up the stairs, until she heard another set of footsteps following her that definitely weren't Hatori's. "Haru, you can't come up here." She said bluntly.

"I want to." Was his short reply, and she rolled her eyes. She wouldn't be able to dissuade him no matter how much she tried. So she relented in letting him follow her up the stairs and hoped he wouldn't want to go so far as to come into the room with her.


	17. Healing scars

**Author's Note: Yep, another chapter up! I very recently finished the whole manga series off... I had a very strong sense of loss, is that sad? XD Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and feel free to review, I love to hear from readers! It's going to start moving now, I swear! Kes x**

There was no such luck. It was almost as though Hatsuharu had heard her unsaid plea, and deliberately went against it. Hatori walked into the room slowly, and as his eyes fell upon Hatsuharu Tamiko thought he might have told him to go. He did try; he got so far as to say, "Hatsuharu..." before he was cut off.

"I'm staying." Hatsuharu said bluntly.

"That isn't a good idea. You might distress her." Hatori replied sternly, motioning for Tamiko to sit on the bed. She did so, and watched the two of them with dull eyes. The pain was beginning to take over most of her reactions, so she had no energy to spare arguing with them. She contented to watching.

"I won't distress her, I'm her friend." Hatsuharu said calmly.

Hatori, for once, looked a little angry, and Tamiko was certain she saw the teenager flinch away from his glare, but then the stern neutrality was back. "You do not understand what I might have to do. If Isuzu has dislocated Tamiko's shoulder I'll have to put it back into place. I imagine she doesn't want a teenager gawping at her whilst that is being done." Tamiko shuddered at the thought of more pain, and drew her knees up to her chest with gritted teeth. Then again, anything to help this dull ache she had to go away would be good...

"Then I'll stay here to comfort her." Hatsuharu moved towards the bed and sat down on it beside her, letting her head lounge on his shoulder. "Please, I won't be a burden to you." Despite her first irritations with the boy for following her up here, Tamiko was quite glad that he was there. When Hatori looked questioningly at her, she sighed out in defeat.

"It's okay Hatori, he can stay if he wants to. Though why I have no idea." _Maybe he's a bit of a sadist_ she thought. Then again, the thought of the calm and placid white Haru being into all the blood and gore was laughable.

"You would do the same for me." Hatsuharu stated plainly, patting her head gently. Tamiko resisted the urge to head- butt him again despite the truth in his words. She would do that for any of them. She treated them like her own family, which technically they were. She didn't have any other kind of family to go back home to, anyway.

Hatori huffed out in frustration and knelt in front of her, taking her injured arm and pulling up the sleeve of her jacket to the elbow. In the crook of it, an angry purple mark greeted him from the capillaries Isuzu had managed to rupture during a particularly hefty kick. Hatsuharu winced just as much as Tamiko did, and Hatori looked at her apologetically. "I'm going to have to touch it, Tamiko. The bruise is right near your joint, so I need to check that none of it has been knocked out of place."

Tamiko nodded, and bit her lip as he began to gently probe the mark with his fingertips. At one part the pain was so great she drew blood at how harshly she was biting herself. "Hey." She felt Hatsuharu pat her opposite shoulder gently. "It's okay." He said softly, and Tamiko had to chuckle wryly at him.

"You aren't the one being prodded and poked, are you?"

"Well, no, but... that's what people say when they're comforting others, right?" Hatsuharu offered her a small grin and rubbed her back gently. He seemed to be a natural at the comforting thing even if he pretended to be a novice at it.

Hatori then moved on and lowered the fabric of the jacket back down. He looked thoughtful, and then reached for her other arm. When he pulled that sleeve up he was met with similar marks, and some were quite clear bite marks from Isuzu's horse form. Her teeth had punctured her skin deeply, but fortunately the blood was now dried and had formed its own makeshift plaster to stop any more blood escaping from the teeth marks. He sighed out deeply as though he was greatly disappointed in her, and Tamiko knew how the argument would go if it was brought to a head.  
_"You should know better, you're older than her, she's inexperienced, bla bla bla..." _She knew she would be portrayed as the bad guy even though, clearly, it was this jumped up, hormonal teenager's fault and not hers. He lowered the sleeve of that arm too and cleared his throat a little awkwardly. "Could you take off your jacket and top for me please?" he asked calmly, his doctor's voice coming into play.

Her face paled, and in response hugged herself tightly and consciously. She didn't like _anyone_ seeing her body. No one. Her body was her own thing and only people worthy enough could see it. Transforming was bad enough- she was always trying to make herself remain clothed due to it. Why else had she been training her mind so hard to be able to accomplish such a feat? She looked over at Hatsuharu pointedly and cleared her own throat. It was bad enough that Hatori had too see- there was no way in hell she would let Hatsuharu see."That's your cue to go, Haru." She said.

The boy stared blankly at her, and for a moment looked as though he was going to ignore her words. But when she rolled her eyes and took off her jacket with a sigh he stood up as though someone had jabbed him in the side unpleasantly. She was also certain that a blush coloured his cheeks as he retreated out of the room uncomfortably. Once he had gone, Hatori smiled fondly after him. "The insecurities of youth, hmm?"

She nodded. "Yeah." She hoped Hatsuharu had only been blushing at the thought of seeing a girl undress, and not because it was _her. _She had enough on her plate already. She didn't want a crush on her hands too... She peeled her top off next to expose her torso to the doctor, and sincerely wished it had been some other doctor Hatsuharu had called over the minute she had. His eyes filled with horror, and she shut her eyes to stop feeling the pity radiating from him. "Hatori, please..." she began, hoping that he would spare her the sympathy vote.

"So. This is what happened all those years ago." She could still feel his eyes on her, and she shuddered. She could almost feel her scars twitching at the attention they were suddenly receiving. "Don't think I am dense enough to believe that all of this was Isuzu's doing."

She cracked one eye open and almost winced as his eyes roved over her battered body. "I...I didn't think you were dense, not at all. Far from it in fact." She lowered her gaze. "I didn't want you to see this. It's not your problem anymore, is it?"

He swallowed painfully. "Be that as it may, I still have the right to care about you, Tamiko. Even if it is only through a doctor to patient way, or friend to friend. If for one minute I had known that Akito was going to..."

"You would do what, exactly? Go on, do enlighten me." She had opened both eyes now, and was staring at him daringly. "Go charging in on your valiant steed, sword in hand to save the damsel in distress?"

He looked doubtful. "I..."

"Oh give over, Hatori. You wouldn't have done anything even if you did know because you fear Akito. I fear him too, even if it doesn't look like it. We were both young and scared, and if you're totally honest with yourself you still are. And I don't blame you for that. He's a formidable young man."

Hatori sighed, and did something very uncharacteristic of him- he reached out a hand and cupped her face gently, his hands warm on her cheek. "Yes, there's an underlying respect for Akito, but I wouldn't stand by and watch him hurt anyone, including you. Especially you."

Tamiko was frozen. She hadn't had any form of affection for so long- it felt odd to have it now. Still, she responded in the only way she knew how; she moved her face closer to his hand, relishing the contact. It felt so good. So comforting. Shigure and Ayame could try, but neither of them could comfort or reassure her like Hatori could. "You wouldn't?" she asked gently.

"I wouldn't." He confirmed, his thumb brushing against her skin lightly. She shuddered again, but this time with anxiety."I've grown up, like I've said before. I'm not afraid of him, I just respect him and go about my duties to keep him happy. That's all. Believe me."

She opened her mouth to say something, then promptly shut it. She was going to tell him to ask his _parents _what really happened that day, and then perhaps he would understand why she had had to leave and abandon him. She knew that had been what he'd felt as she had gone; betrayed, crushed, thought of her as a coward... oh Hatori, if only you knew... "It's a shame." She said absent-mindedly, looking away from him.

"What is?"

"The fact that you've grown up." She smiled meekly and leant her head against his. "I kinda liked it when you were a teenager."

Hatori chuckled softly. "Well, I think I managed to figure that out for myself back then. You wouldn't let me out of your sight for a second."

"Don't say you didn't like the attention you got. It was always Shigure and Ayame that had more people following them rather than you. I just gave you pity." She smirked and looked back at him somewhat shyly.

"Don't lie." Hatori's genuine smile seemed to be infectious. "It's bad for you."

Tamiko laughed quietly and moved away from him, resting her weight on her palms. "Why? What's your diagnosis for that, _doctor_?"

"You'll go bald."

Tamiko laughed a little louder then, and felt the familiar little bubbles of happiness she used to get back when they were all so close. "And who did you get that crap from?"

Hatori hesitated, smiling all the while, before replying. "My infinite mind of knowledge. And Shigure mentioned it a few times."

"Ah, well you can't trust him can you? He mentions baldness as being a symptom for everything."

Hatori moved closer to her and let his gaze linger on her face for a little longer than was necessary. His smile softened, and his mouth barely moved as he murmured, "No..."

"HATORI!!"

Both of them jolted out of their daydreams to hear Shigure's loud voice bounce around the halls of the house. "Speak of the frickin' devil." Tamiko grumbled.

"And he shall appear." Hatori finished for her. He sighed and strode over to the door, opening it wide. "Yeah, what?" He said in a raised voice down the stairs.

"Why are you taking so long?" Shigure whined. He couldn't have done a better imitation of his canine self, Tamiko thought to herself. "Everyone down here is getting very worried. You're not sexually harassing our poor little Tamii are you?"

"No, I am not. It's only you and your vulgar notions that suggest such filth." Hatori said with an ice cold calmness.

"Oh, you better not be you naughty naughty man!"

"Quiet you hack." Amid the offended wails of Shigure, Hatori moved back into the room. "Ignore him. Now, where were we?"

"You looked like you were about to kiss me." She said quietly.

He froze. "What?"

Tamiko raised an eyebrow in his direction. "You heard me. Maybe Shigure was right, maybe you were trying to harass me." She winked playfully at him, and Hatori realised she was toying with him.

"Oh shut up." He threw the nearest thing to him at her that ended up being her jacket and took out a syringe full of clear liquid. "Now stay still. This will help with the pain."

She nodded and looked away from the rather threateningly sharp looking needle, shutting her eyes tightly. She wasn't very good in any kind of medical sense; taking the tablet for her food poisoning had been bad enough. Needles were ten times worse. She felt him wash her arm with some kind of cleanser, and then came the pin-prick of pain. She gritted her teeth and shuddered. "Hey, c'mon." Hatori said firmly, putting a hand on her shoulder to hold her steady. "You're alright." He injected the painkiller into her arm and then moved away to get a plaster, her eyes slowly opening to watch him. "That should do you the world of good. All I can say now is just sleep it off, I'm afraid. Thankfully, you haven't got any bones broken. Isuzu narrowly missed hitting your joint though, and I only dread to think what damage could have been done if that were the case."

"But I'm fine?" Tamiko questioned.

"Yes, you're fine. Just a bit bruised and battered. And if it makes you feel any better, Isuzu is in just the same state as you are. If not, a little worse off."

"Good." She said harshly, glowering as she looked down at the floor.

Hatori hesitated. "May I ask", he began, strapping a plaster onto her upper arm, "why the two of you were fighting?"

"I haven't told Shigure or Haru, what makes you think I'll tell you?" she asked.

"Quite simple, really. Because you trust me. And the fact that it has nothing to do with me." He said plainly. "And the fact that the only thing I can think of that links the two of you together is Hatsuharu."

Tamiko's eyes got wider as he spoke, and she opened her mouth to blabber out questions concerning how he knew, but she thought it better to keep quiet. Instead she shut her mouth tightly and picked up her top, throwing it on quite carelessly. "Why did you ask if you knew already?" she grumbled.

"Because I wanted to hear it coming from you. Tamiko, I'm not asking you- I am telling you. Don't involve yourself with any Sohmas, not again." She looked at him then, and saw that he looked like he was bordering on the regretful. "You got hurt last time. This time it will just happen all over again, and maybe both of you will bear the wrath of Akito's temper." He was becoming a lot more caring towards her, but this time Tamiko snapped.

"Do you really think I'm 'involved' as you put it, with Hatsuharu? The kid's fifteen years old for Christ's sake Hatori, I'm not a pervert like Shigure!" She turned away from him as she pulled on her jacket, wincing as she felt the injection spot ache from where she'd moved. She was genuinely offended that Hatori thought she would sink so low as to..._seduce..._a teenager that was nowhere near becoming an adult. "Maybe the look of me's got to your head. I'm the same age as you, and not the eighteen year old I'm made out to be."

"It hasn't gotten to my head, Tamiko. I'm just worried about you. About Haru."

Her expression softened a little, and she turned back to him. "I thought I told you not to worry about me."

"It's not going to stop me."

She smiled gently and lifted a hand up, smoothing back the black hair that hung over his left eye so she could get a proper look at it. She preferred his hair this length; it made him look mysterious, and even more handsome. But that eye...something was definitely wrong with that eye...she suddenly gaped and felt tears spring to her eyes. "You're blind." She said simply. Hatori heaved out a sigh but said nothing, though he did try to lower his head to get her to stop looking at him. She held him firm despite his discomfort, and looked into that sightless, glazed over eye. What on earth had happened to make him sustain such an injury? "You poor thing." She whispered gently. "How did it happen?"

He succeeded in jerking his head away from her, and put a hand over the eye out of self- consciousness. "Akito." He stated.

Tamiko paused, before shuffling closer to him and wrapping her arms around him. Hatori jolted in surprise, not used to staying as he was when a woman hugged him, but relaxed as she leant her head on his chest. "I'm so sorry." She muttered.

Hatori sighed, and moved his own arms around her. "Me too." And there the two stayed, holding onto each other with sympathy and the strange feeling of being connected by their scars, both mental and physical.

"Jeez, this is taking too long. Hatori should be done by now!" Kyo complained, stalking along the living room of the house. He'd been uncomfortable since the three of them had gone up the stairs, and his concern had only heightened when Hatsuharu had walked back down looking incredibly embarrassed. "What was going on when you were with them, Haru?" he asked the other boy, who was sat cross legged against the sofa watching the television.

Hatsuharu tilted his head to one side, considering. "He was checking out her bruises, then he told her to take her top off so he could get a better look. He told me to leave the room, so I did."

"Is that why you were blushing?" Yuki asked from his place on the sofa. "You looked like you'd been spray painted red."

Hatsuharu shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it's because it's _her_, of all people. I have seen girls without their tops on before."

"Too much information there, Haru." Yuki replied, blushing himself. Hatsuharu shrugged again and contended himself in pretending to watch whatever was on the television. It was true, he had. He and Rin had had an intimate relationship for a long while before she ended it, so he'd seen everything there was to see of a female's anatomy. He didn't know why it was so different with Tamiko; he put it down to the fact that she was a good friend of his, and it would be like walking in on Yuki in the shower. Now there was a thought...

A smashing noise alerted Hatsuharu away from his thoughts to see Kyo breathing heavily after throwing a vase at the wall in frustration. "Damnit! Why don't they just come down already!" He snarled, beginning his pacing again. The noise had also alerted Tohru's attention, and she gasped as she saw the remains of the vase. "Oh dear, I'll clean that up!"

Yuki looked serenely over at her. "Make the stupid Cat do it Miss Honda, it was his fault after all."

"You shut up you damn Rat!"

"He has a point Kyo. You did purposely throw it at the wall. Did it give you a shifty look?"

"Keep out of his Ox boy! You just stick up for Yuki because you have an obsession with him!"

"He does not!"

"Actually, I think I might." Hatsuharu said quietly.

"That's not helping things, is it?"

"Ah, Tamiko!"

At Tohru's exclamation, they all turned their heads to see Tamiko wander into the room with Hatori in tow. To their horror, her eyes were red and watery. As though she had just recently stopped crying... "What did you say to her?" Kyo demanded, rounding on the doctor.

Hatori just stood there and raised an eyebrow coolly at him. "Maybe you're forgetting your nerve, Kyo. I said nothing to her that would upset her, it was of her own accord that she started crying."

"I wasn't crying!" Tamiko defended herself, walking to stand next to Hatsuharu. "I just had hay fever."

"In November?" Hatsuharu asked doubtfully.

"Shut up." She hissed under her breath, but she attempted a small smile. She noticed that Hatori was planning on leaving, so she excused herself. "I'm going to see Hatori off. Aren't you going too, Haru?"

He shook his head. "Nah, I want to stay here for a while. I can always walk back later."

She shrugged. "Suit yourself." Walking away from them, she followed Hatori out of the house until he turned to face her. "You're not going to say goodbye to Shigure?"

"There's no need. He already knows I'm going. Besides, the idiot should be paying more attention to his writing instead of causing everyone trouble."

She chuckled lightly. "I guess you're right." She sobered quickly, and rubbed her arm awkwardly. "Hatori? You know...about me crying...it's not a normal thing, right?"

Hatori gave her a small smile. "Right."

"And you won't...tell anyone, right?"

He chuckled softly. "No, I won't."

"And I won't tell them that you did too."

He hesitated, before tucking both of his hands into his pockets and looking away. "I have to go. I'll see you again soon. I'm certain you'll want to gatecrash the main house at New Year's."

She smirked. "Oh, wouldn't miss it for the world."

Hatori smiled again and took his leave, walking back to the spot where his car had been parked. "No, you wouldn't would you?" he said to himself fondly as he turned to look back. She'd already gone.


	18. Plotting, plotting

**AN: Wow, I really haven't updated this for ageess, sorry for everyone who's been watching or reviewing this from the off. I suddenly had the urge to write another chapter, and also this one isn't as eventful as I would have hoped, it's still okay I think. It's been a while since I wrote any of this so if there's a change in style you know why! ****Reviews are again, much appreciated, they really are, so if you have any feedback then please don't be shy and let me know =)  
Kes xX**

Unfortunately, Hatori had been dead right about New Year's. The weeks and days seemed to speed by for the teenage members of the Sohma family until the Christmas holidays, and they were all well into making their plans for their free time.

"What are you doing for the holidays, Uo?" Tohru asked brightly to her friend.

The yankee looked thoughtful and reclined on her chair, biting the end of her pencil as she did so. "Dunno. I might need to work extra shifts at the store, seeing as my lazy ass of a dad isn't bothering to get up for work anymore. Christmas will be a dive, I bet." She tossed her blonde hair back out of her eyes. "I'm still stumped for New Year's though. I guess I'll just sit it out on my own; you know what dad's like."

Tohru sighed lightly. "Yes, I do." Uo's father was an alcoholic, and if there was any chance for a good drink he would take it. New Year's was one of these occasions. "Well, you can always come around to the house for New Year's, I'm sure Shigure won't mind! They all have to go to the Sohma compound for New Year's, and I have to stay home. It would be nice for the company, wouldn't it Tamiko?" She looked around to face the Mimicker, but found that her seat was empty. "Tamiko?" she repeated, her eyes darting around the classroom.

"She's over there." Uo said, pointing to a huddle of boys in the corner.

When Tohru ventured over, she saw that Tamiko was in the middle of the fray- which wasn't that surprising anymore- and she was smirking smugly at her opponent, Kyo, who looked ready to detonate. "Read 'em and weep, copper boy." She said, laying down her hand of cards with an experienced flick of her wrist. "I told you, don't challenge me to poker, especially when you don't know the rules of the game."

"Damnit bitch, you just got lucky!"

"Three times in a row, did I?"

"Shut up. Oh, Tohru", he said, looking up as he noticed the other girl peering over at them. "I didn't see you there."

She smiled lightly. "Sorry to interrupt..."

"It's okay Tohru, I'm finished here anyway." Tamiko got up from her seat and watched as it was instantly filled by a hopeful competitor. "I'm guessing you wanted to talk to me about something?"

"Yes, I did actually. I just wondered if it would be okay if Uo came around on New Year's to stay with us." Tohru asked as they walked back to their desks.

Tamiko raised an eyebrow. "I don't see why it would be an issue to talk to me about."

"Oh, but you're staying with me aren't you! So I wanted to make sure." Tohru explained.

Tamiko frowned. "No I'm not."

"Oh." Tohru's face dropped. "How come?"

"Nothing to do with you, Tohru, trust me. I really like you, kid. You have a good heart. No, I just want to go to the compound's little bash." When Tohru looked confused at her, she grinned toothily. "I know, I know, I'm not allowed to go. But since when has that ever stopped me before?"

Tohru looked nervous at the idea, and said softly, "Tamiko, you might get hurt..."

"What are they going to do, set legs eleven on me again? Rin only hurt me because I was unprepared and angry. If I expect it she has no chance of getting near me." She patted Tohru on the shoulder playfully. "You know what you need to do, Tohru?"

Tohru blinked. "What?"

"You need to stop worrying so much about others and think about yourself. Uo's fine to come over, I said so." And with that, Tamiko walked out of the classroom and left Tohru wondering what on _earth_ Tamiko was going to think up to get to the party.

That had been a few weeks ago now, and Tamiko still hadn't truly got a plan settled. That was clear by the way she was staying rather quiet around the house and not really retaliating that much to Shigure's jibes. Tohru remained rather anxious around the Mimicker, certain that one day she was going to jump into life like a coiled spring and cause havoc. One evening at dinner, her suspicions only got higher. Tamiko sat at the table eating quietly, though it was quite clear that she wanted to question somebody.

Kyo cringed as the food was put in front of him. "Ugh, I hate leeks."

"Eat it." Yuki said bluntly, before smiling politely at Tohru as she put his plate down. Kyo grumbled something incoherently and made a point of eating around the leeks as best he could.

Tamiko smirked in his direction. "You still have your old habits, eh? You hated leeks even when you were a child."

"Yeah, because they're disgusting." Kyo answered shortly, glowering down at his plate as though it was _its_ fault that he was being forced to eat the food he loathed so much.

Tamiko grinned, and then seemed to gather up enough courage to ask, "Shigure, who's performing the New Year's dance this year at the compound?"

Shigure tapped one of his chopsticks to his lips in thought. "Hmm. That would be Hatori this year, because we're coming into the year of the Dragon. And Momiji will be accompanying him as we're leaving the year of the Rabbit."

"Hatori huh? That guy just keeps popping up in every orifice of my mind." Tamiko said, more to herself than anyone else. There was a silence then that was only broken by Kyo nearly gagging.

"That's it, I cannot eat this crap." He complained, setting down his chopsticks and beginning to rise from the table.

"Sit. Down." Yuki said in a very dangerous sounding voice, and to everyone's utter surprise Kyo sat back down obediently.

"Sheesh, what's wrong with you?" he huffed.

"You're what's wrong with me, stupid cat." Yuki bit back.

Tamiko eyed him thoughtfully. It must be to do with the New Year's celebrations, she thought to herself. Yuki had never been a fan of parties, and any time he had to go back to the main house she guessed it reminded him of back when he was a kid. She continued on with her food without saying anything, however, her thoughts soon trickling back to the problem of getting into the main house. She would love it if she could just stride in, but that wasn't going to happen. The only thing she could accomplish was turning into one of the animals… but how long would that last?  
Tohru was watching her with a look of concern. Tamiko usually ate anything put in front of her, but today she was picking at her food. "Don't you like it, Tamiko?" she questioned nervously.  
Tamiko glanced at Tohru and raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Oh, no, it's delicious, I just…" she set her chopsticks down on the side. "My mind's just elsewhere, that's all."

"Ah, thinking of me and all my loveliness no doubt." Shigure chipped in, brandishing his own chopsticks in case of attack from the girl.

"Unfortunately for you, dear Shigure, no." Tamiko said, leaning back from the table and frowning. A thought seemed to strike her, and she leaned forwards again. "Do you know where you can get things tailor-made around here?" she asked the table.

Yuki was the first to speak up. "Well, there is the shop owned by Mr. Watanabe that we walk past for school."

"You can't go there! Why spoil your yen there when you can go to Ayame's shop?" Shigure said brightly.

Tamiko looked unimpressed. "Ayame says he sells 'fantasies'. Doesn't sound like what I'm looking for." _Besides_ she thought, _If I go to Ayame's he'll know what my plan is, and with his blabbermouth everyone will end up knowing. _ "I think I'll head to Watanabe's. I don't want anything too fussy anyway."

"Why do you want to go to a dumb clothing shop anyway?" Kyo said through his mouthful of leek-less meal.

"Well, sometimes Kyo, people like to get new clothes instead of wearing shirts with holes in them."

"This is my favourite shirt!"

"All the same, it's falling apart and you need a new one." She then began to eat, mainly to please Tohru who was sat opposite her looking rather worried. Nothing else was really spoken about during dinner, and when everyone got up from the table Tamiko hung back on the pretence of clearing up with Tohru. As she walked into the kitchen and placed the used plates on the side for the last time, she cleared her throat. Tohru was busy washing up, and there was no one else around.

Tohru immediately turned around at the noise and smiled brightly at her helper. "Thank you so much for clearing everything up for me. That means I can get everything done a lot quicker than if I was on my own."

"And you have homework to trouble yourself with, I bet." Tamiko added, leaning against the top as she watched her.

"Oh yes, but that can always wait. Dirty plates can't!"

Tamiko smiled vaguely, and then became serious once again. "Tohru…have you told anyone about what I mentioned to you a few weeks back?"

Tohru paused as she rifled through her memory, before making a small 'o' of realisation with her mouth. "Oh, no I haven't said anything! I keep my secrets, Tamiko, I know it's not good to tell lies."

"Good." Tamiko sighed with relief, folding her arms. "I had a feeling Shigure let it go a little easier than I thought he would."

Tohru didn't reply for a while, but when she did Tamiko knew it was going to be something she wouldn't like. "Tamiko, why do you want to go to the New Years celebration so badly?" When Tamiko didn't respond, she added, "I mean, you're not allowed to go into the main house, so why do you want to risk it when you can see everyone outside of it?"

Tamiko took a long time to reply, and the silence hung in the air like an unwanted guest. "It's not a matter of seeing everyone, Tohru. It's a matter of principle." She said finally, glancing at Tohru with the familiar burning look to her eyes. "I wasn't thrown out of the compound like Akito likes everyone to believe, I walked out of my own accord. I need to show him that I can just as easily walk back in. I've done it before, why not now?"

"But…surely he'll be more vigilant at New Years?" Tohru asked, a frown crossing her face.

Tamiko smirked weakly. "Akito never looks out himself. He has his servants do it for him. And they will be too busy making sure the guests are well entertained. He won't have anything close to security. Besides", she snorted, "no one will stop me doing what I want."

Tohru kept her eyes fixed into the sink as she finished the last plate. "Can you at least be careful? I would hate it for you to get hurt."

Tamiko smiled fondly at the young girl and ruffled her hair gently. "Hey, I'm older than I look, remember? I've been in many fights in my life, I'll be fine if it comes to blows this time. But I'll try to stay out of trouble for the sake of you, Miss Honda."

Tohru then broke into a small smile. "Thanks! It means a lot!"

Tamiko mirrored her smile and backed off, leaving Tohru alone with her domestic paradise. Unknown to Tohru, Tamiko wanted anything but to start any trouble. She could surprise even herself, at times.

New Years snuck up on everyone without much warning, and before anyone knew it the day had arrived. Tamiko had helped Tohru decorate the house with delicate paper decorations, along with Yuki and Kyo, though they had been more of a hindrance than a help- more than once Tamiko had had to bat them out of the way so they didn't end up breaking anything with their quarrels that happened every so often. Once the decorations were done, the Sohmas began to get ready to head off to the compound. Tamiko hung back and tried to stay invisible, but Shigure managed to corner her as she was heading up the stairs.

"And where do you think you're going, miss Kasai?" he trilled.

She shot him a look of pure loathing that he knew held no substance as she retorted, "Well I'm going up the stairs, so that means I'm going to my room or having a bath, doesn't it?" She made to carry on up the stairs, but his next words stopped her.

"You're not going to be joining us then?" he asked slyly.

Tamiko blinked, remaining poker faced as she glanced back over her shoulder. "Where have you been? You knew I'm not allowed, Shigure."

"Yes, but that doesn't mean you won't join us." Shigure replied with an easy going smile, lounging against the stair rail as he stared up at her. "Honestly Tamiko, where have _you_ been when it comes to me? You know that I know you far too well for you to hide anything from me."

She flushed, more in anger than embarrassment. Damn Shigure, damn him to hell. "So I'm guessing you're going to try to warn me off of going, then? Go on then, take your best shot."

He shrugged. "Why should I?"

Tamiko turned to face him properly then, completely thrown. What kind of game was he playing now? "Stop toying with me, 'Gure, you know it's bad for your health." She scoffed, but she remained where she was.

"Well, it's nothing to do with me what you do. It's your funeral. I just think it would make the whole evening more interesting if you showed up." He said offhandedly.

Before she could question him further, Kyo came slumping down the stairs like a child on picture day, his face the picture of reluctance. "I hate going to the main house." He complained, more to himself than anyone else.

Tamiko gave him a pained look. Here she was, trying her best to break in, whereas Kyo and Yuki would give anything to stay out. Irony played cruel tricks at times. She reached out a hand and ruffled his hair affectionately, like a mother would a child. "You'll be fine, little Ume. I swear." She said reassuringly, offering him a soft smile.

"Your swearing isn't going to ensure anything, Miss Kasai." Yuki said from behind Kyo, looking equally irritated by the ordeal. "Out of my way, cat. You're blocking the way."

Kyo instantly bristled, but with a pointed look from Tamiko just walked down obediently, muttering something under his breath. She then focused on Yuki and sighed lightly. "Be easy on him, Yuki. He doesn't want to be there any more than you do. If your irritation should be taken out on anyone it should be Akito, but you and me know it's better to keep it inside, at least for a little while."

Yuki nodded with a soft sigh. "I know. But Kyo doesn't exactly help his cause."

"You shut up, you dirty rat!" Kyo bellowed from the front of the house. Tamiko sighed; clearly the two boys were never going to be able to reconcile. She followed Yuki out of the house with Tohru dashing behind her, still preoccupied with cooking.

"Goodbye, you lot. Stay out of trouble." She said, waving them off with Tohru eagerly wind-milling her arms in comparison.

"We will!" Shigure called over his shoulder. "And you two keep safe!"

Tamiko scowled at him, knowing full well the double meaning to his words. As their shapes disappeared around the corner, she immediately tore inside. Tohru frowned as she followed her with less enthusiasm. "Do you have to go right away?" she asked sadly.

"Unfortunately, yes." She was already on the stairs. "The gates close after the last guests go in. I know I'm going to be gate-crashing, but even _I _can't go through solid gate."

"C-can't you mimic anything that flies?" Tohru asked, following her up the stairs.

Tamiko shook her head, reaching the top floor and heading to her room. "Nope. Kureno never let me get that close. Most of the animals I can mimic are big ones, so no hope of going in unnoticed. I'll have to use either a cat or rat form, I'm going with rat." She opened her wardrobe and let out an 'aha' as she pulled out the cloak she'd recently commissioned from Mr. Watanabe, slipping it over her shoulders. It fitted perfectly, almost as though it was a second skin- far better than her old one. She turned to look at Tohru and posed. "How do I look? Fit for the ball?"

Tohru smiled weakly. "You promised you'd be careful."

"And I'm keeping that promise, don't you worry." Tamiko winked and then left the room as quickly as she'd entered it, pausing only to pick up a pair of dark snug fitting boots by the door. "Could you be a dear and keep one of the windows open a notch? I can go through the window when I get back, I won't have to bother you that way."

"Sure, I can do that. Arisa will be here soon, and she's sleeping over, so we'll be okay." Tohru explained as Tamiko opened the door again, exposing herself to the rather chilly night air. "Be safe."

Tamiko saluted her comically. "When am I ever not?" she retorted, before striding off into the night, the darkness soon swallowing her whole.

She morphed into a rat almost on contact with the pavement outside the house, the pattering of her rodent feet embarrassingly noisy on the cold ground. She paused only to check for traffic as she scuttled across roads, and before long she found herself standing before the gates. Thankfully, she wasn't late, so they were still open. She waited patiently for the next guest to arrive, and when they did she scurried in after them. To her relief, neither of the maids stood at the gate noticed her entrance, merely greeted the guest and let them continue onwards, so she didn't have to deal with any screaming and stamping that she'd anticipated.

Tittering to herself more in her rat form, she scampered through the compound easily, picking out the doors of the houses she knew so well. She came to a stop at the grandest looking building and held her breath. The house held a lot of bad memories for her, memories that were better left buried in the sand. But she was a big girl now, and she'd have to face her demons sooner or later.

She moved away towards the side entrance and finally willed herself to change back, cloak and all. Once she was back to normal size she flattened herself against the wall and glanced in through the open window. Everyone looked so happy inside- was that as much of a ruse as the rest of this place? She tried to search out Kyo or Yuki in the throng, but gave up and tore her gaze away, looking instead up at the stars. The world changed too fast, far too fast for her liking. Everyone could pretend and act all they wanted, but eventually they would be unmasked, and Tamiko wanted to be there to help them when they were. Suddenly she heard a voice dangerously close to her, and her entire form became paralysed with nerves. The voice was one she recognised, but it was one of suspicion and slight annoyance.

"What are you doing here, Tamiko?"


	19. Lanterns

**Author's note: Hello everyone! I'm really happy that everyone's enjoying this as much as I'm enjoying writing it! I've finished my exams so I should have more time to write, though I am going through a funny little writer's block that means I can't write anything /but/ one particular thing. Good news for the ones I can write for, bad news for the others. But I will persevere! So yes, bet you didn't think it was this guy who caught her ;D Also, the end bit is very mushy, apologies for that! And as ever, reviews are really appreciated!**

**Kes xX**

Tamiko's chest loosened when she actually focused on the figure who had rumbled her. "K-Kureno?" she questioned, the confusion clear on her face.

He looked very smart, she noted; black suits seemed to work for him rather well. He was a little taller than he'd been as a teenager, and all of his features seemed to have evened out since then which made him look less gawky than he once did, though his auburn hair was still as flyaway as ever. His hazel eyes were trained onto her form with the same suspicion in them as his voice had. Despite the fact she had been caught, she relaxed; after all, it could have been a lot worse.

"Don't sneak up like that, you scared me half to death!" she hissed.

His cheeks filled with colour and he cast his eyes down. "Sorry", he kept his gaze angled downwards as he added, "but you shouldn't exactly be here."

Tamiko scoffed. "Has Akito warned you all off of me now?"

"Not exactly, but he is baying for your blood. I saw one of his… episodes." Kureno's brows creased into a frown.

"Episodes?" she snorted, "He throws tantrums, Kureno, like a spoilt toddler."

"Tantrums or no, he wants to get to you. Please don't give him the satisfaction and make it easy for him", he replied, sighing as he met her eyes. "I don't want to see anyone get hurt. Not like last ti-"

"Bring that up and you'll be the one getting hurt." Tamiko threatened, but all she did was to look up at the sky again, any trace of hostility gone completely.

"Why are you here, Tamiko?" Kureno asked after a few minutes of silence.

It took a few more minutes of silence until Tamiko answered. "I wanted to see if they were keeping up the act."

"You don't ever…miss it?"

She frowned and turned her body so she could look through the window at the smiles, the dancing and the laughter. "How can you miss something you never truly had in the first place?" she asked quietly, not letting her eyes leave the scene before her. Kureno stayed silent, so she continued, "To be honest, I miss _them_, not _this. _I miss the Sohmas, not the Zodiac."

Kureno put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it softly. "And we all know that. But, sometimes it's best to let go. You _need_ to let go of the past before it consumes you, Tamiko. That's what worries me."

Tamiko glared at him. "No way. I pledged that I would help the Sohma family in any way possible, and that is what I intend to do. So go on", she waved him away, "go and raise the alarm if you want. But I'll just keep coming back like a homing pigeon until I manage to do what I promised."

Kureno hesitated, then pulled his hand away with a rather gruff sigh, especially for someone typically as gentle as him. "You're definitely as stubborn as I remember. You know I wouldn't tell on you like an 8 year old."

"But you are itching to run back to your master." Tamiko said simply.

"Kureno?" The pair froze at the new voice. Tamiko transformed out of instinct, but the cloud was an obvious giveaway as she stood in her rat form looking up at the figure that was Hatsuharu. The boy had barely dressed up for the occasion- he was only wearing his usual clothing, combined with his large white coat to keep out the cold. For the second time that night, Tamiko sighed (or rather squeaked) in relief. The teenager appeared to have keen eyesight, for he crouched down and picked the rat Tamiko up in cupped hands without a word being uttered. A flicker of a smile passed over his face. "I can take it from here, Kureno." Tamiko marvelled at how casually he spoke to his 'superiors'; it was as though he really felt he was the same age as them and commanded and expected the same kind of respect they held. She liked it. Kureno looked as relieved as Tamiko did at the boy's words and quickly slipped back inside, and when the door was shut the music dimmed considerably in volume.

Hatsuharu huffed out, sending a cloud up into the night sky. "You are a naughty rat. I know it's you, Tamiko. Yuki's inside."

"Well, I'd be surprised if you didn't", Tamiko admitted, rearing onto her haunches and watching him, "I expect you've been glued to his side all evening."

He shrugged casually. "Maybe."

She tittered. "Are you going to ask me what I'm doing here too?"

Another shrug. "I was certain you came to marvel at me."

"Y'know, that would be hilarious if you actually sounded sarcastic." She remarked as the teenager began to walk towards the front of the house carefully.

The paper lanterns had been lit by now, and each one glowed like a tiny spaceship hovering above the world. Every now and again the light would blink a little brighter than before, in turn lighting up the path leading to the house in a rather ghostly manner. There were dark shapes moving around inside the house that reminded Tamiko of shadow puppets cavorting and playing behind a thin cloth. None of the figures could be made out though, except the long haired variety was either going to be Ayame, Ritzu or Rin. Tamiko couldn't help but shiver at the cold wind winding its way through the compound and ruffling her short fur. Hatsuharu glanced down at her and raised an eyebrow. "If you were a real rat you'd be hibernating by now, wouldn't you? That's not a very good disguise."

"O-okay", Tamiko admitted through chattering teeth, "so I d-didn't think it th-through. I tend not to th-think before I act." She wrapped her worm-like tail around her in an attempt to keep warm and continued to shiver.

"Well, that's not difficult to realise. I knew _that_ already."

She glared at him as best a rat could. "Thanks, Haru."

"You're welcome." He crouched down and set Tamiko down on the floor with a soft smile. "I think you should change back", he said matter of factly.

Tamiko's eyes widened, all traces of the cold vanishing. "You have got to be kidding me."

Hatsuharu shrugged carelessly. "You wanted to come here to see us all, so you should at least change into someone they'll all recognise."

"You…have no idea how much trouble it would cause if Akito spotted me", she said, sighing resignedly. Akito. He was the thing holding her back from everything- not because of what he'd do to her, but of what he would do to those who were friendly with her.

Hatsuharu sat down on the path next to her and rested his head on a hand. "Consider yourself a special guest, invited by me."

Tamiko turned her head towards him. "That would make things even worse, because then your head would be on the block, not mine."

"I can look after myself", he defended, "as you well know."

Tamiko sighed again. "I don't want to see anyone in trouble but myself, Haru."

"Change back or I'll turn Black."

Her eyes widened and she darted towards him in a panic, sitting on his knee. "Don't you dare turn Black on me!"

"I won't if you change back. But if you're going to get me mad…"

Tamiko glared at him. He looked almost proud of the fact he'd found something to blackmail her with. She jumped off his knee and sat back onto her haunches. Well, there was nothing she could throw back at him, and she knew if he turned Black now he would rampage for a day if Yuki wasn't around to calm him down. She closed her eyes and let the feeling steal over her form, swallowing the small figure of the rat and turning her human in a puff of smoke. She remained sitting down and cocked a brow at him. "Happy now?"

"More so," he said, nudging her playfully. "You're much better in human form than rat form."

She looked at him curiously. "I'm guessing that was a compliment." She said with a snigger. "So why aren't you inside enjoying yourself, hmm?"

Hatsuharu seemed to quieten and looked out over the stretch of path they were sat on. "Rin's in there." He said simply.

"Ah." Tamiko put a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "Do you still have feelings for her?" He shook his head, causing her to frown. "Then what's the problem?"

"She just aggravates me." He leaned back on his hands and looked up at the sky. "She refuses to understand the fact that I still care, even if we're not together anymore."

"Was there any reason why the two of you broke up?" Tamiko questioned, a small frown forming between her eyebrows. She had been genuinely curious why the two had suddenly cut it off ever since she'd found out they had been dating, mainly because she couldn't understand why Rin would have broken up with him- after all, she could never see Haru breaking up with _anyone_.

Hatsuharu kept his eyes on the sky as he replied, "She tired of me."

Tamiko raised a brow. "She found you boring?" When Hatsuharu looked away from the sky only to stare at his shoes glumly she retorted, "Well, that's complete crap, Haru. You're far from boring. You're so…unboring its untrue."

Hatsuharu did turn to watch her then, slight amusement in his eyes. "I'm unboring?"

Tamiko nodded with a small smile. "Well yeah, of course you're unboring, you're one of the most interesting people I've met."

"So are you."

Tamiko chuckled good-humouredly and looked out over the stretch of the compound. "We're not talking about me. There is such thing as being too interesting, you know. You get the mix just about right." She crossed her legs and laid her hands in her lap, her eyes lighting up in the gentle glow of the extraterrestrial lanterns surrounding them. They seemed to rotate closer to her the longer she sat there, as though seeking something from her, giving her the same glowing look as the lanterns themselves. She could feel Hatsuharu's eyes on her and felt rather awkward about it. The silence between them didn't last long, as soon Hatsuharu cleared his throat and attracted her attention again.

"I don't think there's such thing as being too interesting." he said matter of factly, staring at her as though expecting her to argue back at him.

The truth was, however, she was feeling too calm to get worked up about anything. The lanterns were pleasing to watch, and the tiny flickering flames inside were soothing the fire inside of her to an extent. She smiled at him wistfully. "If only that were true, Haru. If only…"

"Why isn't it? What's happened to you that could convince me?"

That hit a nerve. She froze, and the smile fell from her face as quickly as it appeared. She tore her gaze away from him. "You don't need to know about things like that", she said softly, "you don't need the burden."

"It's not a burden, it's just curiosity." Hatsuharu answered. "You know everything there is to know about me, and all of the others. Why does nobody know anything about you?"

Tamiko didn't answer for a while, and instead turned to look back on the party going on inside the house. Hatsuharu did have a point; she knew a lot about every member of the Sohma family. For the honest truth to spill out, she didn't want to know anything about herself as it was, let alone confide in anyone about it. If she could forget her life she would, and start afresh in a new skin. But seeing as she couldn't, she had to keep fighting onwards like she was ploughing through endless snow until she found one point where the snow would all melt away and she could stop the fight and become the content woman she wanted to be. It was only when she heard Hatsuharu clear his throat that she responded at all. "Because it's better if I'm a puzzle to everyone instead of everybody knowing where I've been and where I'm going."

Hatsuharu seemed to sigh. "Do you always have to talk in riddles? It can get tiring after a while."

Tamiko just smiled. "Sorry. It's what I do."

"You'd have made a better writer than Shigure." He commented, offering her a small smile in return.

"Why thank you, I always thought so myself." She replied with a swift smirk.

It was then that the heavens seemed to explode with colour as fireworks lit up the sky and eclipsed the solemnly blinking stars. Tamiko's smirk melted into a genuine smile as she watched them, feeling like a child again. No matter what age you reached, fireworks would always turn you back into a five year old gleefully pointing and gazing with awe up at the display of colours, lights and sounds that could never be replicated. She chuckled softly, and then looked back down at Hatsuharu; he too was watching the sky with the same kind of amazement in his own expression. "I guess that means I should wish you happy new year, Haru." She said.  
He looked back down and smiled back. Before she could guess what he was going to do, he got up from the step and plucked two of the lanterns off their strings with a simple tug. "Follow me", he said, turning and disappearing round the back of the house. Tamiko watched him dumbly for a few minutes before getting up and following him. Not only had he made her transform right under Akito's nose, but now he'd defaced property? She was liking him more and more. Hatsuharu was waiting for her around the corner, and Tamiko found herself being led away from the main house and towards an outcrop of houses, the stolen lanterns in Hatsuharu's grasp bobbing and flickering in the air like distress beacons. He seemed pretty clear on where he was going, so she didn't question him or ask him to turn back. That was until she realised where they were headed.

"Your house?" she asked.

Hatsuharu turned and nodded to her. "Yeah, my family are at the celebrations."

"Where you should be", Tamiko reminded him as he walked around the side of the house, "if you weren't so determined to stay with me."

"You say that as though you don't like the company." He replied slyly, and she scowled, beaten. He knew that she enjoyed anyone's company other than her own, and he also knew that he was one of the people highest up on the list.

The fireworks were lighting up their shadows and turning them into kaleidoscopes of colour, but when they got to the back garden the colours were extinguished by the looming form of the house. Tamiko stood back and dived her hands into the pockets of her cloak. "You haven't moved since you were little." She remarked, looking around the garden. "Nothing's changed at all."

Hatsuharu shrugged. "My mother never thought about moving. This is pretty good land, according to her. And obviously, Akito would probably go mad because of me."

She smiled somewhat wistfully at him. "If only you could run away, huh?" she paused. "Are you like the others, Haru?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean…" she swallowed rather painfully, "do you feel trapped like they do?"

He stood in thought for a few minutes before he replied. "I don't feel as trapped as some of them, but sometimes I do, yes." He then took one of the lanterns' strings and handed it to Tamiko. His hands brushed against hers and she realised how cold he actually was. "It comes with the fact that you live in a place that shuts out the outside world, I guess."

She took the string and smiled softly at him, placing her hand upon his own in an attempt to warm it. "I'll help as much as I can, Haru. I promise."

"The only thing about feeling like this is the matter of not even knowing just how much of a prisoner you really are." Hatsuharu replied, lacing his fingers within hers more out of instinct than anything.

"You would never allow yourself to become a prisoner, Haru. I know you too well. You'd fight it." Tamiko said, looking down at their hands and raising her brows.  
"Unless someone I care about is in the line of fire." He answered shortly.

Tamiko frowned as the words sunk in. So _that_ was the problem the Ox of the zodiac had. He cared too much. He cared about his friends, his family, maybe even his enemies, so when they all condemned him as stupid and careless he let them, because he didn't want to hurt them in return. Maybe he'd even felt that they were right to an extent, so he thought there was no need to argue back about it. But Hatsuharu had broken that bond, and he would fight back against his enemies…but he still had the tight connections to his friends and family. Maybe that was sensible, maybe it wasn't. And for some reason, Tamiko ended up spilling out the words, "You're not a fool."

Hatsuharu glanced at her, and she saw his eyes were soft and almost gracious. "I know. You taught me that."

She sighed, and then mentally shook herself. "A new year brings new possibilities", she began, tightening her grip on the lantern's string, "and I hope they'll be the good kind."

"Me too", he agreed, squeezing her hand tightly like when a child seeks reassurance that it's allowed to agree with you. Tamiko smiled, and looked up into the sky. The fireworks had stopped and an eerie kind of peace had fallen over the compound. There was no cheering, no music, nothing. Or maybe that was how she was thinking of it.

Hatsuharu smiled, and said softly, "on the count of three, we'll release the possibilities."

Tamiko grinned at him and bumped him playfully. "You get more poetic with age, Haru. You mature like wine."

"Thank you." Hatsuharu chuckled gently and then slowly counted down. "One…two…three." He let the string slip through his fingers and watched the lantern drift up into the sky, and Tamiko did the same. Their lanterns rose higher and higher, and never once did they move away from each other. Tamiko sighed with contentment as she watched them float off into the unknown, and wondered if that would ever be able to happen to any of the people she knew and cared for. "Happy new year, Tamiko Kasai." Hatsuharu said without even looking away from the lanterns' progress.

Tamiko looked down at him and leant close to him, and before she fully realised why she did it, she brushed her lips against his cheek. "Happy new year, Hatsuharu Sohma." She replied.


End file.
